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A    LADY    OF   THE    OLD    REGIME 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


A  Lady  of  the  Old 
Regime 

By 
Ernest   F.  Henderson 


New  York 

The   Macmillan   Company 
1909 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1909, 
By  ERNEST  F.   HENDERSON. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.      Published  October,  1909. 


NorbjooS  $reaa 

J.  8.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


HILDEGAED  VON   BUNSEN 

AND  MAY  SHE  SAY  AS  MADAME  DID  ONCE,  "BUT  IT 
DOES  GIVE  ME  PLEASURE  THAT  SO  SENSIBLE  A  MAN 
AS  HE  SHOULD  CONSIDER  THAT  I  HAVE  LTJMltlRES. 
IT    MAKES    ME    RIGHT   PROUD." 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I.     Versailles 


II.  Fetes  and  Amusements      .... 

III.  Etiquette  and  Prerogatives  . 

IV.  Madame's  Associates 

V.  The  King's  Grandsons  and  the  Stuarts 

VI.  Madame's  Interests;   Peculiarities 

VII.  The  Tragic  Ending  of  an  Era 

VIII.  The  Regency 


PAGE 
1 

33 
62 
89 
115 
151 
177 
205 


vu 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Madame Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

The  Original  Palace 2 

The  Palace  as  Madame  found  It 6 

Monsieur , 10 

Madame's  Windows 14 

The  Trees  of  Versailles 18 

The  Exterior  of  the  Grotto 22 

The  Interior  of  the  Grotto 26 

The  Grand  Staircase 28 

The  Group  in  the  Grotto 30 

The  Palace  in  1688 34 

Louis  XIV 38 

The  Royal  Family  at  a  Ball 42 

The  Marais 44 

Illumination  and  Fireworks  in  Front  of  the  Palace  ....  46 

The  Burning  of  Alcine's  Palace 50 

The  Water-works  at  Marly 54 

The  Fourth  Room  of  the  "  Apartment " 56 

The  Fifth  Room  of  the  "  Apartment " 60 

The  Galerie  des  Glaces 64 

The  King's  Bedchamber 68 

The  Chapel 72 

An  Illumination  of  the  Grand  Canal 76 

A  Play  in  the  Open  Air 80 

A  Play  in  the  Marble  Courtyard 84 

Louis  XIV  treading  on  his  Enemies 88 

The  Queen  as  Infanfa 90 

At  the  Fountain  of  Enceladus 92 

Madame  de  Montespan 94 

Madame  de  Maintenon 96 

The  Dauphin 98 

Heidelberg  Castle  in  Ruins 102 

King  James  II 106 

ix 


x  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

The  Dauphin,  Dauphiness,  and  their  Three  Sons      ....  110 

The  Entrance  to  the  Labyrinth .114 

A  Fountain  (The  Monkey  and  the  Chestnuts) 116 

One  of  the  Grand  Apartments 118 

The  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 120 

The  CEil  de  Bceuf  or  King's  Antechamber 124 

Monsieur's  Dress  at  the  Bourgogne  Wedding 128 

Madame's  Dress  at  the  Wedding 132 

The  Duke  d'Anjou 136 

One  of  the  Grand  Apartments 140 

The  Fountain  of  Latona 144 

The  Old  Pretender 148 

A  Fountain  in  the  Labyrinth 152 

The  Fountain  of  Apollo  in  Winter 154 

The  Electress  Sophia 156 

A  Fountain  in  the  Labyrinth 160 

The  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne's  Latest  Dress 162 

The  Water  Theatre 166 

Another  View  of  the  Water  Theatre 168 

The  Three  Fountains 172 

Louis  XIV 176 

The  Duke  of  Marlborough 180 

Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy 184 

The  King's  Balcony 188 

Madame  presenting  the  Saxon  Prince  to  the  King    ....  192 

The  Embassy  from  the  Orient 196 

The  Persian  Envoy 198 

The  Funeral  Procession  of  Louis  XIV 202 

The  Receiving  Vault  for  Louis  XIV's  Body 206 

The  Funeral  Ceremony  for  the  Due  and  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne     .  210 

The  Exiled  Queen  of  England 214 

An  Indian  of  Madame's  Time *       .         .         .  218 

The  Entry  of  the  Little  Infanta  into  Paris 222 

The  Meeting  of  the  Infanta  and  the  King 226 

The  Crown  of  Louis  XV .228 

The  Entry  of  Louis  XV  into  Rheims 230 

Before  the  Cathedral  at  Rheims 234 

The  Coronation  Ceremony 238 


A    LADY    OF   THE   OLD    REGIME 


CHAPTER   I 

Versailles 

In  December,  1722,  a  diarist,  Matthew  Marais,  writes: 
"They  have  composed  a  satirical  epitaph  on  Madame: 
'Here  lies  idleness,  the  mother  of  all  vice.'  That  is 
directed  against  her  who  did  neither  good  nor  ill  to  any 
one,  and  against  her  son,  the  Regent,  of  whom  the  same 
cannot  be  said."  It  is  to  this  princess  "who  did  neither 
good  nor  ill  to  any  one"  that  the  following  pages  are  to 
be  devoted ;  but  while  one  must  subscribe  in  general  to 
the  verdict,  it  only  tells  half  of  the  story.  For  if  Madame 
did  nothing,  she  was  a  great  deal.  Her  originality,  her 
naturalness,  her  warm  heart,  make  her  stand  out  in  bold 
relief  against  the  artificial  background  of  Louis  XIV's 
court;  while  her  keen  observation  and  her  picturesque 
language  make  hers  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  corre- 
spondences known  to  literature  or  history. 

l 


2  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

To  make  clear  just  who  " Madame"  was,  we  must  go 
back  for  a  moment  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Thirty  Years' 
War  began  with  the  acceptance  by  a  Palatine  Elector  of 
the  throne  of  Bohemia,  which  had,  largely  on  religious 
grounds,  revolted  against  the  Austrian  rule  after  three 
Austrian  dignitaries  had  been  ignominiously  thrown  from 
the  windows  of  the  castle  at  Prague.  This  Palatine 
Elector,  Frederick  V,  is  known  as  the  Winter  King,  the 
Jesuits  at  the  time  having  uttered  the  true  prophecy  that 
his  reign  would  endure  but  a  single  winter.  At  the  battle 
of  the  White  Hill  in  1620  he  lost  not  only  his  kingdom, 
but  his  hereditary  lands  as  well,  and  retired  with  his  wife 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I  of  England,  to  The  Hague. 
There,  save  during  the  few  months  of  the  triumphal 
career  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  at  whose  side  he  rode 
into  Nuremberg  in  1630,  he  remained  inactive  until  his 
death. 

By  the  peace  of  Westphalia  in  1648  the  portion  of  the 
Palatinate  along  the  Rhine  and  Necker,  including  Hei- 
delberg, Mannheim,  and  Schwetzingen,  was  given  back 
to  the  Winter  King's  eldest  surviving  son,  Charles  Louis, 
who  took  once  more  the  title  of  Elector  and  married  a 
princess  of  Hesse-Cassel.  To  them  was  born,  besides  a 
son  who  need  not  concern  us  here,  a  daughter,  Elizabeth 
Charlotte,  the  " Madame"  already  mentioned. 

It  may  be  said  in  passing  that  Elector  Charles  Louis 


w 
Ph 


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O 

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VERSAILLES  3 

was  a  very  emancipated  person  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
take  Philip  of  Hesse,  the  ally  of  Luther,  as  his  avowed 
model  and  openly  commit  bigamy.  But  apart  from  this 
he  was  a  man  of  original  ideas  on  almost  every  subject, 
and  his  daughter  owed  to  him  a  great  deal.  Elizabeth 
Charlotte's  early  childhood  was  passed  in  the  castle  of 
Heidelberg,  in  which  both  of  her  father's  wives  lived  at 
the  same  time.  Then  her  Aunt  Sophia,  the  later  Electress 
of  Hanover,  withdrew  her  for  four  years  from  this  un- 
pleasant atmosphere,  and  when  she  returned  at  the  age 
of  twelve,  her  own  mother  had  yielded  the  field.  She  was 
always  treated  as  of  better  lineage  than  her  half  sisters 
and  brothers,  but  seems  to  have  loved  them  devotedly 
and  to  have  enjoyed  her  life  in  Heidelberg  with  an  in- 
tense enjoyment.  She  roamed  over  the  hills  and  through 
the  forest,  and  earned  the  nickname  of  Rauschenblatt- 
knechtchen,  or  sprite  of  the  rustling  leaves,  a  name  to 
which  she  often  fondly  refers  in  later  life.  In  short,  she 
was  a  child  of  nature,  as  few  princesses  are. 

Various  projects  of  marriage  were  formed  for  her,  one 
with  the  man  who  was  later  King  William  of  England. 
But  none  materialized ;  and,  according  to  her  own  ac- 
count, her  father  was  beginning  to  consider  her  a  drug 
in  the  market,  when  news  came  of  the  sudden  death  of 
the  first  Madame,  Henrietta  of  France,  who  was  widely 
believed,  and  whom  Elizabeth  Charlotte  always  believed, 
to  have  been  poisoned.     Through  the  influence  of  an- 


4  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

other  aunt  who  was  in  favor  at  the  French  court,  negoti- 
ations were  soon  begun  between  Louis  XIV  and  the 
Elector,  with  the  result  that  Elizabeth  Charlotte  was 
chosen  as  the  wife  of  the  King's  brother. 

Louis  XIV  insisted  on  a  public  abjuration  of  faith, 
which  took  place,  but  was  lenient  with  regard  to  the 
dowry,  leaving  it  to  the  Elector,  whose  heritage  had  been 
almost  ruined  by  the  great  war,  to  name  the  sum.  How 
small  the  financial  circumstances  were,  may  be  gathered 
from  a  correspondence  of  Anna  Gonzaga,  the  Palatine 
princess  who  had  brought  about  the  marriage,  regarding 
the  trousseau:  "And  after  all,  three  or  four  thousand 
francs  at  the  utmost  will  make  good  all  deficiencies,  and 
you  know  perfectly  well  that  she  has  only  six  night  shirts 
and  as  many  for  the  day ;  and  it  will  give  rise  everywhere 
to  the  pleasantry  that  she  has  not  a  shirt  to  her  back, 
detracting  from  all  that  you  are  doing  for  Madame's 
happiness.  ...  It  is  not  necessary  to  give  a  bracelet,  for 
Monsieur  will  give  just  as  good  a  one,  besides  a  thousand 
other  things.  But  in  the  matter  of  linen  it  would  be  a 
disgrace  to  send  a  daughter  of  the  Elector  to  the  brother 
of  the  King  of  France  with  six  shirts.  A  dozen,  and  this 
marriage  may  be  made  to  serve  the  interests  of  the 
Elector." 

The  famous  grande  Mademoiselle,  daughter  of  Louis 
XIII's  brother  Gaston,  has  given  us  the  best  description 
of  Madame's  arrival  at  the  French  court:    "The  King 


VERSAILLES  5 

was  at  Versailles  and,  the  next  day,  went  to  Villers 
Cotteret  to  see  Monsieur  and  Madame,  who  had  arrived 
there.  He  came  back  saying  that  he  was  charmed  with 
her,  declaring  that  she  was  a  most  witty  and  agreeable 
woman  and  danced  well;  in  fact,  that  the  first  Madame 
was  nothing  compared  to  her.  All  who  were  with  him 
said  the  same.  She  came  over  two  days  later;  she 
arrived  in  a  dress  of  brocaded  silver,  much  better  dressed 
than  when  she  first  saw  Monsieur ;  for  he  says  he  had  not 
found  her  so  at  all  the  first  time.  It  was  cold ;  she  had 
not  been  wearing  a  mask ;  she  had  been  eating  pomegran- 
ates, which  had  turned  her  teeth  purple.  When  one 
comes  from  Germany,  one  has  not  a  French  air  about  one. 
She  seemed  to  us  to  look  well  enough,  but  Monsieur  did 
not  think  so  and  was  a  little  surprised ;  but  as  soon  as 
she  had  breathed  the  air  of  France,  it  was  quite  a  different 
thing.  On  her  arrival  in  Metz  she  was  dressed  in  pale 
blue  silk,  although  it  was  All  Saints'  Day.  Each  country 
has  its  fashions.  As  they  have  so  much  fur  in  Germany, 
they  thought  that  silk  would  have  a  more  Frenchified 
air.  .  .  .  The  next  day  we  all  went  to  see  Madame,  who 
did  not  look  so  well  by  daylight  as  by  the  light  of  the 
flambeaux.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  ballet  made  up  of 
several  entrees,  which  was  assuredly  finer  than  anything 
she  could  ever  have  seen  in  Germany." 

Monsieur  and  Madame  had  never  seen  each  other  until 
after  they  had  been  married  some  days;    for  it  was  be- 


6  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

neath  the  dignity  of  a  brother  of  the  King  of  France  even 
to  go  to  his  own  wedding.  Madame  writes  later,  in 
another  connection  to  be  sure,  "They  are  so  stinking 
proud  here  and  so  '  way  up  and  don't  touch  me '  that  it 
is  unspeakable  and  inconceivable." 

I  find  from  a  document  in  the  National  Archives  that 
Monsieur's  full  title  was  "Philip,  by  the  grace  of  God 
son  of  France,  only  brother  of  the  King,  Duke  of  Orleans, 
etc."  His  wife  writes  of  him  later,  comparing  him  with 
the  King:  "Never  were  two  brothers  more  totally  differ- 
ent in  their  appearance.  The  King  was  tall,  with  light 
hair;  his  mien  was  good  and  his  deportment  manly. 
Monsieur,  without  looking  vulgar,  was  very  small.  His 
hair  and  eyebrows  were  quite  black;  his  eyes  were  dark, 
his  face  long  and  narrow,  his  nose  large,  his  mouth  small, 
and  his  teeth  very  bad.  He  was  fond  of  cards,  of  holding 
drawing  rooms,  of  eating,  dancing,  and  dress :  in  short,  of 
all  the  things  that  women  like."  Of  his  love  of  eating 
Madame  writes  on  another  occasion:  "Ordinarily  he 
would  take  chocolate  in  the  morning  and  two  heavy 
meals  in  the  day,  and,  in  addition,  would  always  have  his 
pockets  and  the  tables  in  his  rooms  supplied  with  pastry 
and  confectionery,  fruit,  and  all  sorts  of  sweetmeats,  to 
devour  at  odd  times." 

Madame  continues :  "The  King  loved  the  chase,  music, 
and  the  theatre;  my  husband  rather  affected  large 
assemblages  and  masquerades.     His  brother  was  a  man 


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VERSAILLES  7 

of  great  gallantry,  and  I  do  not  believe  my  husband  was 
ever  in  love  in  his  life.  He  danced  well,  but  in  a  femi- 
nine manner;  he  could  not  dance  like  a  man,  because 
his  shoes  were  too  high-heeled.  Except  when  with  the 
army  he  would  never  mount  a  horse;  the  soldiers  used 
to  say  that  he  was  more  afraid  of  being  sunburnt  and  of 
the  blackness  of  the  powder  than  of  the  musket-balls, 
and  it  was  quite  true."  All  this  tallies  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  Monsieur  given  much  later  by  Saint-Simon:  "He 
was  a  little  pot-bellied  man  looking  as  if  mounted  on 
stilts,  so  high  were  his  heels;  always  decked  out  like  a 
woman;  covered  all  over  with  rings,  bracelets,  and  jew- 
els; with  a  long  wig  all  fluffy  in  front,  black  and  pow- 
dered; with  ribbons  wherever  he  could  bestow  them 
and  full  of  all  sorts  of  perfumes."  "Had  I  not  been 
able  to  stand  perfumes,"  Madame  once  writes,  "I  should 
long  since  have  been  dead;  for  always  when  I  was  in 
child-bed  Monsieur  came  to  me  with  perfumed  Spanish 
gloves." 

Sophia,  Madame's  aunt,  who  came  incognito  to  Paris 
in  1679,  gives  us  little  glimpses  of  Monsieur  and  of  his 
trifling  existence.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter  to  the  King  of  Spain:  "After  dinner," 
writes  the  witty  Hanoverian,  "we  went  up  to  a  great 
gallery  where  Monsieur  had  all  the  trousseau  of  Mad- 
emoiselle spread  out,  as  well  as  her  toilet  set,  which  is  so 
well  gilded  that  I  took  it  for  gold,  especially  as  I  was 


8  A  LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

ordered  to  admire  it.  But  Monsieur  did  not  wish  to 
deceive  me  and  told  the  truth.  Then  I  went  with  him 
into  another  room,  where  he  showed  me  all  his  jewels 
and  those  he  intended  to  give  Mademoiselle.  ...  As  he 
has  a  particular  talent  for  such  things,  he  took  the  trouble 
to  plan  a  reform  in  all  my  jewellery  and  wished  me  to  have 
altogether  modern  settings.  He  took  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  about  it." 

Monsieur  then  invited  her  to  come  incognito  to  the 
wedding  at  Fontainebleau,  and  as  he  "did  not  wish  to  be 
mortified  over  what  he  was  about  to  produce  at  court,  he 
desired  to  be  consulted  about  the  materials  we  should  need 
for  our  appearance  at  so  great  a  fete ;  and  the  discussion 
took  so  long  that  I  was  very  late  in  returning  that  even- 
ing." When  she  finally  reached  Fontainebleau:  "Mon- 
sieur first  took  me  into  a  little  room  to  show  me  his  coat 
which  he  was  having  embroidered  with  diamonds.  .  .  . 
After  supper,  although  it  was  late,  I  still  desired  to  see 
Madame  before  going  to  bed.  I  found  her  in  her  dressing- 
gown,  and  Monsieur,  too,  in  a  night-cap  fastened  with  a 
flame-colored  ribbon.  He  was  arranging  jewels  for 
Madame,  for  himself,  and  for  his  two  daughters.  He 
was  very  much  ashamed  at  appearing  in  this  guise 
before  me  and  kept  turning  his  head  away.  But  I 
tamed  him  by  helping  him  adjust  the  jewels  and 
arranged  a  spray  for  his  hat  with  which  he  seemed 
very  much  pleased.     Having    accomplished  a   work  of 


VERSAILLES  9 

such  importance,  I  could  sleep  in  peace,  so  I  left  and 
went  to  bed." 

The  next  day  after  Monsieur  had  presented  her  to  the 
Queen,  he  "took  the  candle  and  put  it  near  the  Queen's 
jewels,  saying, ' Madame  d'Osnabriick  is  so  fond  of  jewels; 
look,  are  they  not  admirable  ? '  I  took  it  from  him  and 
told  the  Queen  I  could  not  look  at  her  jewels  because  of 
my  pleasure  in  looking  at  her." 

When  the  future  Electress  left  to  return  to  Hanover, 
the  King  and  Monsieur  presented  her  and  her  daughter 
with  "  buttons  and  button-holes  of  diamonds  such  as 
it  was  the  fashion  to  put  around  sleeves."  Madame 
writes:  "I  take  this  good  occasion  to  send  you  the  dia- 
mond buttons  from  the  King.  Monsieur  is  very  sorry 
he  cannot  in  person  show  you  how  to  put  them  on  the 
dress  or  sleeves;  but  he  has  already  arranged  with 
Madame  de  Mecklenburg  to  send  you  a  paper  pattern  of 
it.  Then  uncle,  I  hope,  will  ask  again  what  your  Grace 
means  to  do  with  the  filthy  things.  I  should  often  like 
to  tell  that  to  Monsieur,  if  I  dared."  Madame  tells  us 
that  Monsieur  would  serve  her  exactly  as  a  lady's  maid 
would  have  done,  insisting  on  her  rouging  and  even  on 
applying  the  rouge  himself. 

We  have  another  criticism  of  Monsieur  that  is  amusing. 
It  comes  from  a  Comte  de  Tonnerre,  who  was  Monsieur's 
first  gentleman  of  the  bedchamber:  "The  Count  had 
long  stood  very  badly  at  his  own  little  court,"  writes 


10  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

Saint-Simon,  "  because  of  his  bons  mots.  The  saying  had 
once  escaped  him  that  he  did  not  know  why  he  stayed 
on  in  this  shanty;  that  Monsieur  was  the  most  foolish 
woman  in  the  world,  and  Madame  the  most  foolish  man 
he  had  ever  seen.  Both  learned  of  it  and  were  very 
much  offended.     Yet  he  was  about  right." 

Monsieur's  temper  must  have  been,  at  all  times,  some- 
thing of  a  trial.  "When  his  Grace  slept  in  my  bed," 
Madame  writes,  "I  had  to  lie  on  the  edge,  so  that  some- 
times I  fell  out  of  bed  in  my  sleep.  For  his  Grace  could 
not  endure  to  have  me  touch  him,  and  if  in  my  sleep  I 
chanced  to  move  my  foot  and  do  so,  he  would  wake  and 
scold  me  for  half  an  hour.  So  I  was  heartily  glad  when 
his  Grace  made  up  his  mind  of  his  own  accord  to  sleep  in 
his  own  room  and  let  me  lie  quiet  without  having  to  fear 
being  scolded  or  falling  out  of  bed." 

When  Madame  arrived  in  France,  late  in  the  year 
1671,  the  court  was  paying  only  occasional  visits  to  Ver- 
sailles, for  the  palace  was  being  enlarged.  Our  engrav- 
ing shows  it  as  it  looked  in  1664.  Madame  writes, 
much  later:  "The  King  himself  acknowledges  that 
there  are  faults  in  the  architecture  of  Versailles.  The 
reason  is  that  the  King  did  not  intend  to  build  so  large 
a  palace,  but  merely  to  enlarge  the  little  one  that  was 
there.  But  afterwards  the  King  came  to  love  the  place, 
but  could  not  stay  without  having  more  room  for  his 
court.    So  instead  of  pulling  down  the  little  palace  and 


^BIlIlflilliMi'S1  !  WifflmWi 

Monsieur 


VERSAILLES  11 

making  a  large  new  design,  the  King  merely  built  around 
it,  —  hung  a  mantle  about  it,  so  to  speak,  —  and  that 
spoiled  everything."  "They  began,"  writes  Charles  Per- 
rault,  the  man  who  deserves  immortality  for  first  com- 
mitting to  writing  our  popular  fairy  stories  of  Bluebeard, 
Cinderella,  and  Red  Riding-hood,  "with  some  buildings 
which,  when  they  were  half  finished,  did  not  please  and 
were  at  once  torn  down."  Madame  writes  in  this  con- 
nection: "All  those  who  love  building  have  this  in  com- 
mon, that  they  like  to  change  and  begin  over  again. 
Our  King  here  is  that  way,  too.  There  is  not  a  spot  in 
Versailles  which  has  not  been  changed  ten  times,  and  it 
often  happens  that  it  is  no  improvement."  But  to  the 
little  chateau  in  the  middle,  with  which  memories  of  his 
youthful  hunting  days  were  bound  up,  the  King  clung 
with  blind  obstinacy.  In  vain  his  able  minister,  Colbert, 
wrote  to  him :  "Everything  they  are  planning  to  do  is  but 
patchwork  and  will  never  be  any  good.  .  .  .  Every 
one  with  a  taste  for  architecture,  either  now  or  in  the 
future,  will  say  that  this  chateau  resembles  a  little  man 
with  long  arms  and  a  big  head  —  in  other  words,  is  a  mon- 
strosity among  buildings;"  and  he  urges  him  to  tear  the 
old  part  down  and  begin  anew.  "But  the  King  would 
not  consent,"  writes  Perrault;  "in  vain  it  was  repre- 
sented to  him  that  a  large  part  of  it  was  threatening  to 
fall.  He  decided  to  rebuild  what  was  necessary  and, 
suspecting  that   they   were   making   this   little   chateau 


12  A   LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

more  rickety  than  was  the  case  in  order  to  induce  him  to 
tear  it  down,  he  said  with  some  feeling  that  they  might 
tear  the  whole  thing  down  if  they  wished,  but  that  he 
would  have  it  rebuilt  exactly  as  it  was,  and  without  the 
least  change." 

By  the  time  of  Madame's  arrival  the  work  on  the 
exterior,  towards  the  park  at  least,  was  completed, 
though  the  great  north  and  south  wings  had  not  yet 
been  added.  It  had  been  begun  in  1668.  The  por- 
tion now  occupied  by  the  Galerie  des  glaces  was 
still  an  open  terrace.  The  architect  of  this  first  reno- 
vation was  Le  Vau,  and  he,  as  well  as  Le  Notre,  who 
designed  the  gardens,  and  Le  Brun,  who  decorated  the 
interior,  had  been  chosen  because  of  their  successful 
work  at  Vaux,  the  fairy-like  palace  of  that  Fouquet, 
Louis  XIV's  own  finance  minister,  whom  the  King  had 
disgraced  and  ruined  just  after  attending  a  gorgeous  fete 
in  his  house.  Fouquet's  motto  had  been  a  squirrel  with 
quo  non  ascendat?    He  knew  now. 

We  have  a  description  of  the  palace  of  Versailles,  as 
it  then  was,  written  by  Felibien  in  1674 :  "It  is  well  first 
of  all  to  remark  that,  as  the  sun  is  the  King's  device  and 
the  poets  confound  the  sun  and  Apollo,  there  is  nothing 
in  this  superb  mansion  that  does  not  relate  to  this  divin- 
ity. Thus  all  the  figures  and  ornaments  one  sees  are  not 
at  all  placed  there  by  chance,  but  either  have  something 
to  do  with  the  sun  or  are  appropriate  to  the  special  places 


VERSAILLES  13 

where  they  are  put.  That  is  why,  since  the  two  wings 
of  the  great  courtyard  are  particularly  designed  for  the 
offices  of  the  Bouche,  the  Gobelet,  the  Pannetrie,  the 
Fruiterie,  and  the  other  offices  of  the  King,  those  who  are 
at  the  head  of  these  great  branches  have  had  the  four 
elements  represented  above  the  doors  in  these  two 
wings ;  since,  one  more  than  the  other,  they  furnish  these 
offices  with  all  that  is  most  requisite  for  the  nourishment 
of  man.  For  Earth  gives  liberally  of  its  animals,  its 
fruits,  its  flowers  and  its  liqueurs;  Water  furnishes  fish; 
Air  birds;  and  Fire  the  means  of  preparing  the  major- 
ity of  these  aliments.  And  since  there  are  twelve  figures 
on  each  balcony,  each  element  is  represented  by  three 
figures.  Earth  is  represented  by  Ceres,  Pomona,  and 
Flora.  .  .  .  Water  is  represented  by  Neptune,  Thetis, 
and  Galatea.  .  .  .  Air  is  represented  by  Juno,  Iris,  and 
Zephyr.  .  .  .      Fire  by  Vulcan  and  the  two  Cyclops. .  .  . 

"  From  this  great  court  one  enters  the  little  court 
where  one  ascends  first  by  three  steps,  then,  after  cross- 
ing a  broad  landing,  by  five  more  steps.  This  court  is 
paved  with  black  and  white  marble  with  bands  of  another 
kind  of  marble,  white  and  red.  In  the  centre  is  a  pool 
and  fountain  of  white  marble,  with  a  group  of  figures  of 
gilded  bronze. 

"  The  front  and  wings  of  the  little  chateau  are  built  all 
of  bricks  and  cut  stone,  and  in  the  panels  between  the 
windows  are  an  infinite  number  of  marble  busts  on  stands, 


14  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

also  of  marble,  for  the  adornment  of  the  palace.  Pro- 
jecting from  the  front  is  a  balcony  supported  by  eight 
columns  of  j asperated  marble,  white  and  red.  They  are 
Doric  columns  with  their  bases  and  capitals  of  white 
marble.  In  the  two  angles  of  the  front  wings  are  two 
projections  of  cut  stone  supporting  two  little  cabinets 
surrounded  by  cages  of  gilded  iron,  and  below  are  two 
pools  of  white  marble  in  the  form  of  large  shells  in  which 
are  young  Tritons  spouting  water. 

"  The  principal  fagade  which  overlooks  the  parterre  of 
water  is  adorned  with  three  projections  or  balconies,  each 
with  four  columns,  which  has  given  an  opportunity  to 
place  twelve  figures  there;  and  this  number  of  twelve 
decided  them  to  represent  there  the  twelve  months  of 
the  year  —  all  the  more  as  this  particularly  accords  with 
the  sun  which  forms  the  main  part  of  the  King's  device. 
The  months  of  March,  April,  May,  and  June  are  on  the 
balcony  of  the  pavilion  to  the  right ;  the  months  of  July, 
August,  September,  and  October  are  on  the  balconies  in 
the  middle  of  the  terrace ;  and  the  months  of  November, 
December,  January,  and  February  are  on  the  balcony 
of  the  pavilion  to  the  left.  In  the  keystones  on  the 
ground  floor  they  intend  to  represent  heads  or  masks  of^ 
men  and  women,  from  infancy  to  extreme  old  age  — 
say,  from  twelve  to  a  hundred  years  or  thereabouts, 
because  the  year  is  the  perfect  image  of  the  life  of 
man." 


it  X  "WIie:  wW !  J ( ®« 


e=3 


-MSrr 


Madame's  Windows  (Ground  Floor) 


VERSAILLES  15 

Madame's  own  apartment,  for  the  first  years  at  least, 
was  at  the  south-west  angle  of  the  middle  projection  of  the 
palace.  It  was  on  the  ground  floor  and  was  raised  but  a 
few  steps  above  the  terrace.  When  the  Dauphin  became 
of  age,  however,  the  space  was  needed  for  his  more  elabo- 
rate establishment,  and  Madame  moved  into  the  south 
wing.  She  made  several  subsequent  changes  necessitated 
by  deaths  in  the  royal  family,  but  remained  always,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  find  out,  on  the  ground  floor. 

The  open  terrace  looking  down  upon  the  park  was 
converted  into  the  Galerie  des  glaces  in  1679,  although 
the  very  elaborate  interior  decoration  was  not  com- 
pleted until  five  years  later.  It  was  in  1679  that 
Sophia  of  Hanover  made  the  visit  to  her  niece  of  which 
I  have  already  spoken.  Her  comments  on  Versailles  are 
particularly  amusing  because  of  the  discrepancies  between 
her  letters  and  her  memoirs.  The  letters  passed  through 
the  mail  and  were  almost  sure  to  be  opened  by  the  "  black 
cabinet,"  as  that  department  of  the  government  was 
called.  So  to  her  brother  the  Duchess  Sophia  writes  that 
Versailles  surpasses  anything  one  could  imagine  in  the  way 
of  beauty  and  magnificence;  that  she  had  at  first  con- 
sidered St.  Cloud,  Madame's  summer  residence,  the  finest 
thing  in  France,  but  that  she  had  now  been  undeceived ; 
that  what  the  man  in  the  Visionnaires  had  said  of  his 
palace  did  not  approach  the  reality  about  Versailles.  The 
Visionnaires  was  a  play  in  which  the  King  himself  had 


16  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

once  acted.  In  her  memoirs,  on  the  other  hand,  Sophia 
speaks  as  though  Monsieur  had  rather  forced  her  to  ad- 
mire the  beauties  of  Versailles,  "  where  art  has  created 
more  marvels  than  nature."  "I  should  prefer  St. 
Cloud  if  I  had  the  choice/'  she  writes,  and  her  chief 
enthusiasm  is  for  the  good  repast  which  "was  worth  all 
the  fountains  they  had  taken  so  much  trouble  to  make 

go." 

By  her  tact  as  well  as  by  her  wit  Madame's  aunt  had 
made  an  excellent  impression  on  the  King,  as  this  letter 
of  Madame's  will  show:  "In  the  caleche  the  King  spoke 
all  day  long  to-day  about  your  Grace.  He  finds  a  horri- 
ble difference  between  your  Grace  and  the  Duchess  of 
Hanover,  whom  he  saw  to-day.  The  poor  Duchess  was 
so  shy  that  I  was  quite  sorry  for  her.  She  did  not  know 
what  she  was  saying,  and  kept  calling  the  King  'sir.' 
The  King  looked  at  me  and  laughed,  and  said,  as  we 
drove  away:  'Your  cousin  has  none  of  the  intelligence 
of  your  aunt.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  talk  to  the  latter ;  but 
about  the  former  I  said  to  my  brother,  "Brother,  come 
away;  I  confess  I  like  intelligent  people."  '" 

Madame's  earlier  letters,  in  which  she  would  have 
been  likely  to  talk  about  Versailles,  have  unfortunately 
been  lost,  and  we  have  very  few  of  her  comments  on  the 
dwelling  in  which  she  was  to  pass  more  than  thirty 
years  of  her  life.  She,  too,  preferred  St.  Cloud,  because, 
as  she  explains,  there  was  a  better  view  and  much  more 


VERSAILLES  17 

shade.  "I  prefer  trees  and  earth/'  she  once  writes,  "to 
the  grandest  palace,  and  a  kitchen  garden  to  the  most 
elaborate  one  with  marble  fountains." 

Madame  has  more  to  say  about  Fontainebleau,  where 
the  court  went  for  the  autumn  hunting;  about  the 
Trianon,  which  adjoined  the  Versailles  palace;  and 
about  Marly,  which  was  only  six  miles  off,  than  she  has 
about  Versailles.  Fontainebleau  she  loved  more  than 
any  place  in  France,  partly  because  of  the  glorious 
forest,  but  also  because  the  palace,  and  especially  the 
great  hall  with  the  recessed  windows,  seemed  to  her  very 
German.  Of  Trianon  she  writes  in  1705:  "I  am  very 
well  lodged  here,  with  four  rooms  and  a  cabinet,  in  which 
I  am  writing  to  your  Grace.  It  looks  out  on  the  springs, 
as  they  call  it :  the  springs  are  a  little  wood  so  thick 
that  the  sun  cannot  pierce  it  even  at  mid-day.  Under- 
neath are  more  than  fifty  springs,  which  make  little 
brooks  only  a  foot  wide,  so  one  can  cross  them  all.  They 
are  bordered  with  turf  and  form  little  islands,  which  are 
large  enough  to  put  a  table  and  chairs  there  and  play 
cards  in  the  shade."  Her  portion  of  the  building,  she 
explains,  was  the  part  known  as  the  Trianon  sous  bois. 
She  further  tells  us:  "It  is  not  here  as  at  Marly,  where 
no  one  can  come  unless  designated.  Here  every  one  can 
come  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  playing  goes  on  the  whole 
time  until  supper." 

Of  Marly  Madame  writes:  "This  seems  to  me  a  topsy- 


18  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

turvy  world.  I  find  nothing  pretty  here  but  the  place.' 
One  must  acknowledge  that  Marly  is  admirable.  One 
cannot  in  the  whole  world  see  or  imagine  a  more  beauti- 
ful garden.  It  is  much  more  delightful  than  the  one  at 
Versailles.  It  cost  the  King  a  good  sum,  too;  and  its 
keeping  up  comes  to  700,000  francs.  Everywhere  are 
beautiful  marble  statues,  and  so  many  fountains  of  every 
kind  that  one  simply  cannot  count  them.  I  walk  every 
evening  for  two  good  hours." 

Of  her  own  St.  Cloud  Madame  writes  in  1691 :  "  Would 
God  I  could  once  pay  my  respects  to  your  Grace  here; 
afterwards  I  would  gladly  die.  I  am  sure  your  Grace 
would  admire  the  new  park,  for  it  is  full  of  alleys  and 
large  fountains,  with  the  finest  view  in  the  world.  Be- 
hind the  house  Monsieur  has  cut  down  a  hill,  making  a 
parterre  and  an  orangery  which  are  on  a  level  with  his 
room,  on  the  one  side,  and  with  the  gallery,  on  the  other. 
Here  your  Grace  would  find  room  enough  to  promenade. 
Monsieur  would  take  great  pleasure  in  showing  your 
Grace  all  this.  Between  ourselves  I  find  our  gardens 
here  pleasanter  than  those  of  Versailles,  although  not  so 
magnificent.  They  are  nearer  at  hand  and  have  more 
shade." 

Formalism  went  so  far  in  those  days  that,  at  Ver- 
sailles at  least,  not  a  single  tree  was  allowed  to  grow 
naturally,  even  those  massed  in  the  park  being  cut  into 
great   square   blocks.     This   altogether   prevented   them 


H 
►J 

CO 

OS 

w 


CO 

a 

K 

as 
H 

63 

X 


VERSAILLES  19 

from  giving  shade.  The  yew  trees  were  cut  into  fan- 
tastic figures.  From  engravings  we  find  that  the  trees 
in  the  park  were  planted  when  very  small;  but  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1700,  Madame  writes:  "They  have  now  found  a 
way  of  bringing  trees  higher  than  a  house  from  the 
woods  and  planting  them;  so  that  gardens  are  soon 
made.  To-day  we  met  more  than  thirty  carts  with  such 
trees,  which  do  not  die  when  they  are  planted,  but  grow 
finely." 

The  grading  of  the  land,  the  planting,  the  digging  of 
trenches  for  the  enormous  net-work  of  pipes,  the  exca- 
vating for  the  different  artificial  sheets  of  water  involved 
an  enormous  amount  of  labor.  Dangeau  speaks  once  of 
twenty-two  thousand  men  and  six  thousand  horses  being 
employed  daily,  and  again  of  thirty-five  thousand  men. 
Wonder  has  often  been  expressed  that  Louis  should 
have  chosen  a  site  where  there  were  so  many  natural 
obstacles  to  overcome.  St.  Germain,  for  instance, 
offered  infinitely  greater  advantages;  and  the  same 
amount  of  money  expended  there  (Versailles  cost 
119,000,000  francs,  equal  to  four  or  five  times  that 
amount  to-day)  might  indeed  have  produced  a  bit  of 
fairy  land.  One  explanation  offered  is  that  from  St. 
Germain  the  King  could  see  the  towers  of  the  church  of 
St.  Denis,  where  his  ancestors  lay  buried,  and  that  he 
wished  to  escape  the  memory.  It  may  well  be  that  he 
wished  a  site  where  he  would  literally  be  monarch  of  all 


20  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

he  surveyed;  for  at  Versailles  he  continued  buying  land 
until  absolutely  nothing  obstructed  the  horizon. 

All  the  moving  of  earth  made  Versailles  for  a  time 
very  unhealthy.  The  King  himself  had  frequent  attacks 
of  fever.  Madame  de  Sevigne  writes  in  1678:  'The 
King  wishes  to  go  on  Saturday  to  Versailles;  but  it 
seems  that  God  wills  it  not,  for  the  reason  that  the 
buildings  cannot  possibly  be  ready  to  receive  him,  and, 
also,  because  of  the  prodigious  mortality  among  the 
workmen,  of  whom  they  carry  off  every  night  whole 
cart  loads  dead,   as  if  from  the   Hotel  Dieu." 

The  garden  and  park  were  ready  long  before  the 
chateau.  They  were  laid  out  by  Le  Notre,  the  most 
famous  landscape  gardener  of  the  age.  Of  him  Madame 
writes  in  1700:  "I  imagine  my  god-child,  the  Electress 
[later  Queen  of  Prussia],  has  made  her  garden  after 
Le  Notre's  plan,  which  was  pretty.  Good  Le  Notre  is 
still  living,  but  is  beginning  to  be  very  much  of  a  wreck 
and  is  losing  his  memory.  He  must  be  ninety  years 
old." 

In  the  very  year  of  Madame's  coming  we  have  this 
from  a  Venetian  ambassador  who  has  been  invited  to 
see  the  gardens  at  Versailles:  "I  thought  best  not  to 
refuse  this  occasion  of  praising  the  royal  magnificence, 
and  I  thought  thus  to  make  myself  agreeable,  the  work 
at  Versailles  being  an  occupation  in  which  the  King  de- 
lights. .  .  .     The   King   arrived   in    a    coach   which   he 


VERSAILLES  21 

drove  himself,  stopped  the  horses  before  the  entrance 
to  the  grotto,  where  I  had  stationed  myself  to  salute 
him,  descended  with  a  joyful  countenance,  openly  mani- 
festing his  favor  towards  me,  and  asked  me  to  walk 
through  the  gardens.  He  took  me  to  walk  among  the 
fountains,  of  which  there  are  a  very  great  number,  all 
adorned  with  metal  life-sized  statues,  some  gilded,  others 
bronze  color,  with  symbols  suitable  to  the  place  and  use. 
He  kindly  asked  me  my  advice,  and  if  I  thought  the 
arrangement  just  right.  For  two  consecutive  hours, 
escorted  only  by  some  gentlemen  in  waiting,  he  made 
me  accompany  him  to  the  most  retired  spots,  the  most 
delicious  retreats,  where  the  solitude  reposes  him  from 
the  fatigue  caused  by  his  absorbing  occupations.  .  .  . 
His  Majesty  wished  to  complete  his  kindness  to  me  by 
showing  me,  with  the  help  of  the  architects,  the  plan  of 
all  his  projects,  and  making  known  to  me  his  vast  in- 
tentions with  regard  to  perfecting  a  domain  destined  to 
excel  in  magnificence  anything  in  Italy  or  elsewhere, 
both  in  the  abundance  of  statues  and  fountains  and  in 
the  delightful  and  varied  outline  of  the  gardens." 

Madame  de  Scudery,  the  well-known  writer,  has  a 
long  description  —  half  romance,  half  guide-book  —  of  a 
visit  to  the  gardens  in  1668:  "We  were  in  the  flower- 
garden  with  the  gilded  balustrade  [she  means  the  'parterre 
to  the  south  of  the  palace],  bordered  with  cypresses  and 
different   bushes   and   filled   with   a   thousand    kinds   of 


22  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

flowers.  The  lower  side  is  closed  in  by  a  breast-high 
balustrade  whence  there  is  a  very  rural  view.  This 
garden,  as  well  as  all  the  others,  has  its  terraces  bordered 
with  copper  vases  painted  like  porcelain.  Below  this 
balustraded  terrace  is  the  garden  of  the  orange  trees. 
.  .  .  On  leaving  the  garden  of  the  orange  trees  we 
went  to  see  the  labyrinth  en  'passant,  and,  through 
green  woods  intersected  by  alleys  and  fountains,  reached 
the  head  of  this  superb  garden  which  they  call  the  Horse- 
shoe because  of  its  shape.  Its  quite  royal  magnificence 
shows  that  it  could  not  belong  to  a  private  individual, 
however  great  he  might  be.  The  terrace  which  domi- 
nates it  is  an  admirable  point  of  view,  nothing  too  far, 
nothing  too  near.  It  is  bordered  with  wild  bushes, 
always  green.  And  this  great  amphitheatre  of  a  garden, 
with  three  magnificent  landings  and  three  round  beds 
situated  in  a  triangle,  has  something  indescribably  sur- 
prising. Everything  is  smiling  and  pleasant  there; 
everything  tends  to  make  one  joyous  and  marks  the 
greatness  of  the  master.  .  .  ." 

Of  Madame  de  Scudery  herself  our  Madame  gives, 
in  1708,  this  description:  " Madame  de  Scudery  was 
much  older  than  Leibnitz,  for  she  lived  more  than  ninety 
years.  I  often  saw  her.  She  had  a  great  long  face  that 
looked  as  if  it  were  carved  out  of  wood.  She  was  very 
serious  and  deaf  as  a  post ;  but  when  one  induced  her  to 
speak,  one  saw  that  she  had  much  intelligence. " 


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VERSAILLES  23 

Of  the  adornments  of  the  park  and  garden  of  Versailles 
the  most  famous  in  its  day  was  the  Grotto  of  Thetis. 
It  was  in  process  of  building  when  Madame  arrived,  but 
was  destroyed  in  1686  in  order  to  make  room  for  the 
north  wing  of  the  palace. 

It  was  Louis  XIV's  plan  to  show  Versailles  to  the  world 
as  the  outward  and  visible  sign  or  symbol  of  his  reign. 
He  himself  had  called  his  artists  together  and  had  begun 
his  address  to  them  as  follows:  "You  can  judge,  sirs, 
of  the  esteem  in  which  I  hold  you  from  the  fact  that  I 
confide  to  you  what  is  dearest  to  me  in  the  world,  my 
glory."  We  have  seen  that  Louis'  device  was  the  sun  — 
he  had  once  appeared  at  a  masquerade  disguised  as  the 
orb  of  day,  and  once,  after  defeating  the  Dutch,  he  had 
had  a  medal  struck  off  of  the  sun  putting  to  flight  the 
mists  of  the  Lowlands.  As  in  the  palace,  then  so  in  the 
park,  the  achievements  of  Apollo  were  to  form  the  leading 
motive.  In  the  Fountain  of  Latona  we  have  his  birth; 
in  the  Bassin  d' Apollo  we  have  him  rising  with  his  coursers 
to  begin  his  j  ourney  across  the  heavens.  Charles  Perrault, 
the  collector  of  fairy  tales,  had  invented  the  last  stage  in 
the  allegory.  He  himself  writes  that  since  the  King 
has  taken  for  his  device  the  sun  surmounting  a  globe 
with  the  motto  nee  pluribus  impar,  and  since  the  King 
desires  to  have  a  grotto,  he,  Perrault,  has  conceived  the 
idea  of  having  this  grotto  represent  the  place  where 
Apollo  turns  in  to   rest   after  making  the  tour  of  the 


24  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD  REGIME 

earth,  and  signify  that  Louis  XIV  has  come  to  Versailles 
for  repose  after  having  benefited  the  whole  world.  Per- 
rault's  brother  then  drew  the  design  for  the  gate.  La 
Fontaine,  Felibien,  and  Mademoiselle  de  Scudery  all  go 
into  raptures  about  the  grotto  and  its  many  ingenious 
devices.  Mademoiselle  de  Scudery  writes:  "The  eyes 
are  entranced,  the  ears  are  charmed,  the  mind  is  as- 
tounded, and  the  imagination  is  overwhelmed,  so  to  speak, 
by  the  multitude  of  fine  objects  ...  at  the  entrance  of 
the  grotto  appears  a  table  of  red  marble ;  it  is  soon  turned 
into  a  table  of  water  by  the  aid  of  a  jet  of  prodigious  size 
thrown  up  with  such  impetuosity  that  one  expects  it 
to  pierce  the  ceiling  and  mount  to  heaven.  But  besides 
these  great  sheets  of  water,  these  great  shells,  these  Tri- 
tons, these  Nereids,  and  this  prodigious  jet  one  sees  four 
aquatic  candelabra,  if  one  may  call  them  thus,  which 
are  admirably  thought  out.  In  place  of  lights  they  have 
each  six  branches  in  the  shape  of  sea-weed,  which  throw 
out  water  in  abundance.  The  streams,  crossing  each  other, 
give  a  new  and  marvellous  effect.  Above  the  two  shells 
of  j  asperated  marble  which  one  sees  on  entering  at  the 
two  sides  of  the  recess  of  the  grotto,  the  King's  mono- 
gram appears  on  a  background  of  flaxen  gray  shell-work 
formed  of  little  bits  of  mother-of-pearl  and  looking  like 
real  pearls.  The  closed  crown  above  the  monogram 
is  adorned  with  fleurs-de-lis  of  mother-of-pearl  mixed 
with    amber   which   looks   like    gold.      Several     mirrors 


VERSAILLES  25 

encased  in  shell-work  multiply  still  further  all  these  fine 
objects,  and  a  thousand  birds  in  bas-relief — a  perfect 
imitation  —  deceive  the  eyes.  The  ears  are  equally 
deceived;  for,  by  a  quite  new  invention  there  are  con- 
cealed organs  placed  in  such  a  way  that  an  echo  of  the 
grotto  answers  across  to  them,  but  so  naturally  and 
with  such  exactness  that,  while  this  harmony  continues, 
one  actually  imagines  oneself  in  a  thicket  where  a  thou- 
sand birds  are  calling  back  to  each  other ;  and  this  rural 
music,  mingled  with  the  murmuring  of  the  water,  makes 
an  inexpressibly  fine  effect." 

Felibien  descants  on  the  effect  of  the  mirrors  and  de- 
clares that  in  consequence  of  them  "this  grotto  appears 
to  be  of  marvellous  size,  like  several  grottoes,  indeed, 
forming  in  the  midst  of  the  water  a  palace  of  seemingly 
limitless  extent." 

La  Fontaine,  in  beautiful  verse  which  we  can  only 
transcribe  into  plain  prose,  unravels  the  meaning  of  the 
great  groups  of  statuary,  by  Girardin  and  Marsin,  that 
form  the  chief  adornments  of  the  grotto  :  "When  the  sun 
is  tired  and  has  performed  his  task,  he  visits  Thetis  to 
take  his  rest.  So  it  is  that  Louis  goes  to  seek  repose  from 
his  daily  cares.  The  god,  reclining  under  these  humid 
vaults,  is  seated  in  the  midst  of  a  band  of  Nereids.  .  .  . 
Doris  pours  water  on  the  hand  that  he  extends  to  her  — 
Chloe  catches  in  a  basin  the  water  that  he  sheds.  To 
washing  his  feet  Melicerte  applies  herself;  Delphine  holds 


26  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

in  her  arms  an  antique  vase ;  Climene  heaves  vain  sighs 
in  the  presence  of  the  god  .  .  .  and  blushes,  as  much  as 
ever  a  statue  can  blush.  .  .  .  The  steeds  of  Phoebus, 
with  flaming  nostrils,  breathe  in  ambrosia  in  neighboring 
grottoes.  Tritons  are  caring  for  them;  the  work  is  so 
perfect  that  they  seem  to  be  still  panting  from  the  course 
they  have  run." 

But  Louis  XIV's  chief  plaything  at  Versailles  was  the 
grand  canal,  an  artificial  sheet  of  water  nearly  a  mile  long. 
It  was  begun  in  1667  and  not  entirely  finished  until  1680. 
The  edge,  throughout  the  whole  extent,  was  furnished 
with  a  stone  coping.  The  King  had  a  number  of  boats  con- 
structed, splendidly  adorned  with  painting,  sculpture,  and 
gilding.  There  was  a  frigate  with  thirty-two  little  guns, 
which  latter  alone  cost  more  than  20,000  francs.  There 
were  real  Venetian  gondolas  with  real  Venetian  gondoliers, 
and  there  were  galleys  rowed  by  real  convicts.  The  King's 
accounts,  the  Comptes  des  Bdtiments,  mention  two  convicts 
each  of  whom  is  paid  350  francs  a  year  for  his  nourish- 
ment. A  guard  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  to  serve 
by  relays,  was  appointed  to  patrol  the  shore  and,  inci- 
dentally, to  row  the  courtiers  about.  Moonlight  excur- 
sions on  the  water  and  moonlight  drives  around  its  edge 
were  among  the  amusements  of  the  court. 

By  1682  the  south  wing  of  the  palace  was  added,  and  in 
1686  the  north  wing,  after  which  the  fagade  stretched 
along  for  a  distance  of  nine  hundred  feet.     By  that  time, 


VERSAILLES  27 

too,  the  interior  decoration  was  practically  completed. 
The  number  of  artists  employed  was  very  great  and  among 
them  was  Rousseau,  whose  perspectives  were  considered 
so  wonderful  that  the  courtiers  were  often  deceived  — 
or  professed  to  be  so  to  please  the  King.  Besides  his 
loggias  in  the  grand  vestibule  and  a  number  of  other  works 
very  remarkable  for  their  true  perspective,  Rousseau 
painted  the  ceiling  of  the  orangery  at  Versailles.  Madame, 
in  1720,  relates  the  following  little  incident:  "Do  you 
think,  then,  dear  Louisa,  that  I  never  in  my  life  sing 
psalms  or  Lutheran  hymns?  I  know  many  of  them  by 
heart  and  sing  them  often.  I  find  it  a  consolation. 
I  must  tell  you  what  happened  to  me  with  my  singing 
more  than  twenty-five  years  ago.  I  did  not  know  that 
Monsieur  Rousseau,  who  painted  the  orangery,  was  a 
Protestant.  He  was  above,  on  a  scaffolding.  I  thought 
I  was  quite  alone  in  the  gallery  and  sang  out  loud  the 
sixth  psalm  :  In  deinen  grossen  zorn,  darin  ich  bin  verloren, 
ach,  herr  Gott,  straff  mich  nicht  und  deinen  Grimm  der 
gleichen  lass  wiederum  erweichen  und  mich  in  dem  nicht 
richt!  Scarcely  had  I  sung  the  first  stanza  when  I  heard 
some  one  hastily  run  down  from  the  scaffolding  and  fall 
at  my  feet ;  it  was  Rousseau  himself.  I  thought  he  had 
gone  crazy  and  said:  'Good  God,  Monsieur  Rousseau, 
what  is  the  matter  with  you?'  'Is  it  possible,  Madame,' 
he  said,  'that  you  still  remember  our  psalms  and  that 
you  sing  them?     May  the  good  God  bless  you  and  keep 


28  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

you  in  these  sentiments  ! '  And  he  had  tears  in  his  eyes. 
A  few  days  later  he  ran  away;  I  do  not  know  where  he 
went.  But  wherever  he  may  be  I  wish  him  much  hap- 
piness and  joy;  he  is  an  excellent  fresco  painter,  much 
esteemed." 

When  Madame  wrote  these  lines,  Rousseau  had  already 
been  dead  for  twenty-seven  years  ! 

Felibien  writes  of  the  grand  apartments  in  1674 :  "  All 
these  places  are  paved  and  adorned  with  marbles  which 
the  King  has  gathered  from  various  parts  of  his  kingdom ; 
for  in  the  last  ten  years  they  have  discovered  quarries  of 
marbles  of  all  sorts  of  colors  and  as  fine  as  what  they 
formerly  brought  from  Greece  and  Italy.  They  have 
taken  care  to  employ  the  rarest  and  most  precious  ones 
in  the  places  that  are  nearest  to  the  person  of  the  King, 
so  that  gradually  as  one  passes  from  room  to  room  one 
sees  more  and  more  richness  as  well  in  the  marbles  as 
in  the  sculptures  and  in  the  paintings  that  adorn  the  ceil- 
ings." Of  these  marble  floors  we  are  told,  ten  years  later, 
that  they  have  had  to  be  removed :  "  As  they  were  obliged 
to  throw  water  on  them  to  keep  them  clean,  it  was  noticed 
that  the  water,  penetrating  the  joints,  rotted  the  wood 
of  the  ceilings  and  rendered  the  apartments  below  unsafe, 
so  Louis  XIV  determined  to  change  this  flooring  and  sub- 
stitute one  of  wood."  Another  change  was  made  with 
regard  to  the  doors.  These  were  originally  of  bronze 
travaille  a  jour,  or,  in  other  words,  with  open  work  that 


H 

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VERSAILLES  29 

let  the  air  pass  through.  But  these  rooms  at  best  were 
bitterly  cold  in  winter,  and  the  draughts  were  found  to  be 
unendurable.  So  doors  of  wood,  such  as  now  stand 
there,  were  substituted  —  indeed  one  or  two  are  actually 
of  the  period.  Of  the  ceilings  Felibien  writes  in  1674 : 
"The  ceilings  are  to  be  enriched  with  paintings  of  the  best 
artists  of  the  Royal  Academy ;  and  as  the  sun  is  the  King's 
device,  they  have  taken  the  seven  planets  to  serve  as  the 
subject  for  the  pictures  of  the  seven  rooms  of  this  apart- 
ment ;  so  that  in  each  they  are  to  represent  deeds  of  heroes 
of  antiquity  bearing  relation  to  each  of  those  planets,  as 
well  as  deeds  of  his  Majesty.  One  sees  the  appropriate 
symbolical  figures  in  the  sculptured  ornaments  of  the 
cornices  and  ceilings." 

When  Madame  arrived,  the  "  grand  staircase,"  as 
it  was  called,  or  "staircase  of  the  ambassadors,"  was 
in  full  process  of  construction ;  but  so  elaborate  were 
the  details  that  it  was  not  completed  until  1680. 
Dussieux,  by  the  aid  of  Felibien,  describes  it  in  his 
history  of  the  palace,  and  it  is  well  to  dwell  on  it 
here,  for  it  is  one  of  the  vanished  glories  of  Versailles. 
Madame  de  Pompadour  made  a  little  theatre  out  of 
the  space,  there  being  plenty  of  room  for  the  scenery 
to  move  up  and  down ;  and  Louis  XV  himself  completed 
the  destruction  by  making  an  elaborate  suite  of  apart- 
ments for  his  very  unattractive  daughter,  Madame  Ade- 
laide.    One  entered  the  huge  vestibule  from  the  court- 


30  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

yard  by  passing  through  a  triple  arcade  which  was  pro- 
tected by  bars  of  gilded  iron.  The  walls  of  the  vestibule 
were  inlaid  with  the  finest  marbles;  the  floor,  too,  was 
paved  with  marble,  and  the  cornice  was  ornamented  with 
gilded  bronze  work.  Eleven  steps  led  up  to  the  first 
landing,  where  the  staircase  divided,  leading  to  the  right 
and  to  the  left.  There  was  a  niche  with  a  fountain  in  the 
centre,  and  there  were  statues  of  gilded  bronze.  The 
steps  and  landing  were  paved  and  incrusted  with  rich 
marbles.  One  saw  everywhere  the  King's  monogram 
and  his  device  in  bronze.  There  were  pilasters  with 
bases  and  capitals  of  bronze,  there  was  a  bust  of  the 
King  in  white  marble,  and  there  were  paintings  of  Van 
der  Meulen  made  to  resemble  tapestries  with  rich  borders. 
In  the  four  loggias  of  Rousseau  persons  of  all  nations  in 
gay  costumes  seem  to  lean  over  a  railing  covered  with 
hangings  rich  in  gold,  and  to  be  looking  at  the  passers-by. 
The  ceiling  was  painted  by  Le  Brun,  and  of  the  latter's 
elaborate  composition  Felibien  writes  as  follows:  "As 
this  place  is  the  first  one  through  which  the  King  passes 
when  going  to  the  apartments  of  his  palace,  it  seemed 
right  that  it  should  be  ornamented  in  a  manner  worthy 
of  the  reception  of  this  great  monarch  on  his  return  from 
his  glorious  conquests.  The  painter  has  feigned  that  the 
Sciences  and  Fine  Arts  in  the  guise  of  the  Muses  have 
decorated  this  building,  not  as  if  for  an  ordinary  fete, 
but  for  a  day  of  triumph ;  and  he  has  pretended  that  the 


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VERSAILLES  31 

Muses,  having  finished  their  magnificent  preparations 
and  embellished  it  all  in  a  thousand  places  with  festoons 
and  with  vases  full  of  flowers,  had  themselves  remained 
as  spectators  of  all  that  goes  on." 

Apart  from  sesthetical  considerations,  life  in  the  palace 
of  Versailles  must  have  been  attended  with  great  discom- 
forts. In  spite  of  an  infinitude  of  attendants  —  including 
everybody  the  court  numbered  about  fifteen  thousand 
persons  —  the  corridors  seem  to  have  been  kept  in  a  state 
of  revolting  uncleanness,  which  may  account  for  the  fre- 
quent outbreaks  of  different  diseases.  Madame  gives 
truly  disgusting  details  and  furthermore  writes:  "The 
King  and  Monsieur  had  been  accustomed  from  their  child- 
hood to  great  filthiness  in  the  interior  of  their  houses; 
so  much  so  that  they  did  not  know  it  ought  to  be  other- 
wise; and  yet  in  their  persons  they  were  particularly 
neat."  The  cold,  too,  was  often  intense,  for,  so  far  as 
we  know,  there  was  no  means  of  heating  those  lofty 
apartments  save  by  open  fireplaces  and  portable  braziers. 
Madame  writes  once :  "It  is  such  a  bitter  cold  as  cannot 
be  described.  I  am  sitting  by  a  great  fire  with  a  screen 
before  the  doors,  which  are  closed.  I  have  a  sable  fur 
around  my  neck,  and  my  feet  are  in  a  bearskin  bag,  and 
yet  I  am  trembling  with  cold  and  can  scarcely  hold  my 
pen  .  .  .  everything  one  tries  to  eat  is  frozen.  .  .  . 
Every  one  sits  by  his  hearth  and  coughs  and  spits :  that 
is  all  the  music  one  hears."     It  must  be  said  that  the 


32 


A   LADY  OF   THE   OLD  REGIME 


weather  was  quite  unusually  cold,  —  it  was  in  1709,  — 
so  cold  that  people  stayed  away  from  the  court  festivities, 
that  in  Paris  the  theatres  were  obliged  to  close,  and  that 
hundreds  died  of  exposure.  But  on  another  occasion, 
too,  she  writes ;  "  It  is  so  bitterly  cold  that  I  think  my 
brain  must  be  frozen  like  the  pools  in  the  parterre  in 
front  of  my  window  where  they  go  on  skates." 


CHAPTER  II 

Fetes  and  Amusements 


Madame's  best  friend  at  Versailles  was  the  King  him- 
self. "It  cannot  be  denied/'  she  writes  of  him  later, 
"that  Louis  XIV  was  the  finest  man  in  his  kingdom; 
no  person  had  a  better  appearance  than  he;  his  figure 
was  agreeable  "  —  she  speaks  of  him  elsewhere  as  tall  and 
handsome  —  "his  legs  well  made,  his  feet  small,  his 
voice  pleasant  ...  in  short,  no  fault  could  be  found 
with  his  person."  But,  and  here  she  gives  the  key-note 
of  his  character:  "When  the  King  denied  anything,  it 
was  not  permitted  to  argue  with  him;  what  he  com- 
manded must  be  done  quickly,  and  without  reply.  He 
was  too  much  accustomed  to  'such  is  our  good  pleasure' 
to  endure  any  contradiction.  He  was  always  kind  and 
generous  when  he  acted  from  his  own  impulses.  .  .  . 
His  conversation  was  pleasing  in  a  high  degree;  he  had 
the  skill  of  giving  an  agreeable  turn  to  everything;    his 

33 


34  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

manner  of  talking  was  natural,  without  the  least  affecta- 
tion, amiable,  and  obliging.  .  .  .  Louis  XIV  used  to 
say  laughingly  to  Monsieur  that  his  eternal  chattering 
had  put  him  out  of  conceit  with  talking.  'Ah,  mon 
Dieu,'  he  would  say,  'must  I,  to  please  everybody,  say 
as  many  silly  things  as  my  brother  ? '  .  .  .  When  he  did 
not  like  openly  to  reprove  any  person,  he  would  address 
himself  to  me ;  for  he  knew  that  I  never  restrained  my- 
self in  talking,  and  that  amused  him  infinitely.  .  .  . 
He  used  to  joke  in  a  very  comical  and  amusing  manner. 
.  .  .  The  King  used  to  take  off  his  hat  to  women  of  all 
descriptions,  even  the  common  peasants.  .  .  .  He  never 
laughed  in  any  one's  face."  She  has  much  to  say  about 
his  ignorance,  however :  "  Neither  the  King  nor  Monsieur 
had  been  taught  anything;  they  scarcely  knew  how  to 
read  and  write.  .  .  .  He  did  not  know  a  note  of  music ; 
but  his  ear  was  so  correct  that  he  could  play  in  a  masterly 
style  on  the  guitar  and  execute  whatever  he  chose." 
(Madame  herself  played  on  the  guitar.)  "If  the  King 
had  been  my  father,  I  could  not  have  loved  him  more 
than  I  did;   I  was  always  pleased  to  be  with  him." 

Madame  has  great  praise  for  the  King's  politeness. 
He  never  refuses  people  outright,  but  always  says,  Je 
verrai.  However,  she  writes  in  1720,  "The  late  King 
could  make  no  worse  answer  than  je  verrai;  a  down- 
right 'no'  would  have  been  better,  for  with  'je  verrai1 
he  never  in  his  life  accorded  anything."     "When  you 


§1=  '•*  ^ 

li  1  ©  ^  .     ' 


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fetes  AND  AMUSEMENTS  35 

meet  him  in  the  garden,"  she  writes,  "he  does  not 
tell  you  you  are  unwelcome,  but  if  he  does  not  ask  you 
to  walk  with  him,  you  must  pass  on."  Madame  says  she 
has  never  seen  him  strike  but  two  people;  one  was  a 
pickpocket,  the  other  an  official  who  had  refused  him 
admission  to  one  of  his  own  fetes. 

That  the  King  had  an  enormous  conception  of  his 
own  dignity  is  undoubted.  That  he  ever  made  the 
famous  remark  attributed  to  him,  Vetat  c'est  moil  is 
highly  improbable;  but  we  have  documentary  evidence 
that  shows  how  he  felt  about  himself.  Here,  for  in- 
stance, is  the  title-deed,  preserved  in  the  National  Ar- 
chives, by  which  he  gave  the  Palais  Royal  to  his  brother, 
Madame's  husband.  It  begins:  " Louis  by  the  Grace  of 
God  King  of  France  and  of  Navarre,  to  all  present  and 
to  come,  greeting.  Divine  Providence  having  raised  us 
to  the  royal  dignity,  the  grandeur  of  which  being  en- 
tirely derived  from  its  own  should  bear  some  relation 
and  resemblance  to  it,  has  willed  that  we  in  a  measure 
should  imitate  its  care  for  all  its  creatures  by  our  senti- 
ments towards  our  subjects  and  particularly  by  further- 
ing the  interests  of  those  whom  it  has  distinguished 
above  the  rest  by  giving  them  great  and  illustrious  birth 
and  making  them  spring  from  the  stock  of  kings,  to 
whom,  while  they  are  their  subjects,  they  nevertheless 
have  the  advantage  of  not  being  inferior  in  the  glory  of 
their  origin  .  .  .  therefore  we  have  resolved,  etc." 


36  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

Madame  for  a  while  was  in  high  favor  with  the  King. 
She  writes  contemptuously  about  the  way  the  courtiers 
and  court  ladies  treat  her  in  consequence.  At  first  they 
had  so  scorned  a  certain  fur  garment  that  she  had  hidden 
it  away;  now  they  are  all  copying  the  " delightful  Ger- 
man fashion/'  and,  indeed,  we  find  la  palatine  the  ac- 
cepted name  for  a  certain  kind  of  fur  wrap.  After  the 
battle  of  Consarbruck,  in  1675,  although  it  was  won 
against  the  French  themselves,  all  unite  in  praising  the 
bravery  of  the  Hanoverian  princes.  Madame  writes  to 
her  aunt:  "The  whole  court  gapes  at  me,  and  I  hear 
them  say,  as  I  pass,  'Those  princes  they  are  praising  so 
highly  are  the  uncles  and  first  cousin  of  Madame.'  And 
I  myself  am  quite  stuck  up  when  I  receive  a  letter  from 
your  Grace.  I  read  it  three  or  four  times  and  choose 
the  place  where  the  most  people  are  gathered.  For 
some  one  usually  asks  me  from  whom  the  letter  is. 
Then  I  say  over  my  shoulder,  'From  my  aunt,  the  Duchess 
of  Osnabriick.'  Then  everybody  looks  at  me  as  a  cow 
does  at  a  new  gate." 

The  King  had  Madame  taught  to  ride,  —  an  accom- 
plishment to  which  her  father  had  objected  on  the  curi- 
ous ground  that  her  future  husband,  whoever  he  might 
be,  might  object  to  it,  —  and  went  hunting  with  her 
every  other  day.  She  became  the  greatest  huntress  at 
the  court  and  laughed  at  wind  and  weather.  "We  may 
have  a  wet  hunt  to-day,"  she  once  writes,  "for  it  is 


fetes  AND  AMUSEMENTS  37 

raining;  but  as  we  are  not  made  of  salt,  we  shall  not 
melt."  She  writes  late  in  life  that  she  has  fallen  from 
her  horse  twenty-five  times,  but  has  never  been  afraid. 
Once  a  frightened  stag  dashed  against  her  horse's  mouth, 
breaking  his  bit ;  but  she  leaned  forward,  passed  the  rein 
between  the  horse's  teeth,  and  brought  him  to  a  stand- 
still.    She  sometimes  hunted  for  twelve  consecutive  hours. 

It  was  a  life  of  continual  excitement  that  the  court 
led.  Madame  writes  in  December,  1676:  "We  were 
busy  the  whole  day,  for  from  the  morning  until  three  in 
the  afternoon  we  hunted ;  on  our  return  from  the  hunt 
we  went  up  to  play  cards ;  there  we  stayed  until  seven 
in  the  evening.  From  there  we  went  to  the  play,  which 
ended  about  half-past  ten;  then  we  went  to  supper  and 
from  supper  to  the  ball,  which  lasted  until  three  in  the 
morning.     And  then  we  went  to  bed." 

The  card-playing  was  always  for  money.  Monsieur 
was  a  daring  gambler  and  lost  large  sums.  The  King 
was  kept  in  check  by  the  fact  that  all  his  winnings  were 
the  perquisite  of  his  valets  de  chambre.  Once,  indeed,  he 
is  said  to  have  lost  so  much  that  even  he  would  have 
felt  it  severely,  had  not  Madame  de  Montespan  taken  his 
hand,  played  through  the  night,  and  won  back  all  but  a 
few  hundred  thousand  francs.  The  worst  of  the  gam- 
bling, according  to  Madame,  was  that  the  barriers  of 
rank,  on  which  she  herself  came  to  lay  more  stress  than 
even  the  King,  were  let  down.     People  were  admitted  to 


38  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

the  King's  card  playing  simply  because  they  were  rich. 
She  tells  it  as  a  truly  shocking  fact  that  she  has  seen 
people  playing  who  were  not  nobles  at  all.  One,  she 
avers,  was  the  uncle  of  the  King's  fruit  vender.  Black- 
legs and  thieves  were  sometimes  of  the  party.  Once 
jewels  were  stolen  from  the  King's  own  hat.  The  cour- 
tiers, too,  took  their  losses  hard.  Madame  tells  of  four 
suicides  in  one  year. 

The  balls  were  usually  given  in  the  Galerie  des  glaces, 
or  hall  of  mirrors,  which  was  two  hundred  and  twenty 
feet  long,  one  whole  side  being  lined  with  mirrors.  These 
were  a  novelty  used  in  that  way,  and  correspondingly 
expensive.  After  the  original  terrace  was  enclosed  in 
1679,  the  decoration  of  the  Galerie  des  glaces  took  five 
years  to  accomplish.  The  ceiling  was  painted  by  Le  Brun 
and  represented  the  achievements  of  Louis  XIV,  —  his 
crossing  the  Rhine,  his  joining  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Mediterranean  by  means  of  the  Languedoc  Canal,  his 
victories  over  his  different  enemies.  These  paintings 
caused  great  offence  to  Europe,  and  one  can  readily 
understand  that  it  was  not  pleasant  for  the  various 
nations  to  know  that  they  were  depicted  as  under  the 
heel  of  the  conqueror.  Every  detail  of  the  gallery  was 
magnificent:  the  gilded  cornice,  with  its  hanging  gar- 
lands, the  marble  pilasters,  the  bronze  trophies,  the 
sculptured  cocks,  emblems  of  vigilance,  the  blazing  suns, 
the  fleurs-de-lis. 


Louis  XIV 


FETES   AND  AMUSEMENTS  39 

The  furniture  of  the  Galerie  des  glaces  must  have  cost 
almost  as  much  as  its  construction.  It  has  all  vanished 
to-day;  but  we  fortunately  have  contemporary  descrip- 
tions and  also  very  minute  accounts  of  the  sums  at 
which  the  different  objects  were  valued.  These  have 
been  published  under  the  title  of  Comptes  des  Batiments. 
There  were  sixteen  great  chandeliers  of  silver,  twenty- 
four  lustres,  as  they  were  called,  of  crystal,  and  two  great 
lustres  of  silver,  each  with  eight  branches.  Of  massive 
chiselled  silver,  too,  were  a  great  number  of  the  chairs 
and  benches;  we  find  one  bench  worth  16,000,  another 
24,000,  and  another  35,000  livres.  The  Mercure  Galant 
of  1682  speaks  of  enormous  silver  stands  on  which  were 
candelabra  and  of  great  silver  boxes  for  orange  trees 
that  stood  on  silver  bases,  four  in  a  row,  between  each 
pair  of  windows.  The  curtains  were  of  white  damask 
embroidered  in  gold  with  the  monogram  of  the  King. 
The  tables  and  vases  were  of  porphyry  and  alabaster. 

The  lighting  of  the  palace  was  in  itself  no  small  item 
of  expense.  On  very  grand  occasions  as  many  as  five 
thousand  candles  were  lighted  in  the  Galerie  des  glaces; 
and  when  one  remembers  that  candle  ends  were  per- 
quisites, and  that  candles  might  never  be  lighted  twice, 
one  can  understand  how,  when  Necker  later  undertook 
the  reform  of  the  finances,  he  found  the  expense  of  light- 
ing estimated  at  450,000  francs  a  year. 

Louis  XIV's  enjoyment  of  his  silver  furniture  did  not 


40  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

last  long.  In  1689,  in  straits  because  of  his  war  with 
the  Dutch,  he  ordered  it  all  sent  to  the  mint.  "Even 
the  toilet  sets  of  the  ladies  are  to  be  melted,"  writes 
Dangeau,  "not  excepting  that  of  the  Dauphiness." 
Two  great  balustrades  of  silver  were  also  sacrificed,  and 
there  were  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty  eight  objects  in 
all.  The  worst  of  it  was  that  the  returns  were  infi- 
nitely less  than  the  things  were  worth.  "The  King  told 
us  this  evening,"  writes  Dangeau,  on  December  12, 
"  that  he  had  expected  to  get  more  than  six  millions 
from  the  silver  ware  he  is  melting  up,  but  that  it  will 
not  come  to  more  than  three  millions." 

There  is  one  thing  to  be  said  about  Louis  XIV's  ex- 
travagance in  buying  splendid  objects;  and  perhaps  his 
willingness  to  sacrifice  them  when  the  good  of  the  state 
demanded  corroborates  what  I  am  about  to  say.  His 
main  object  was  to  build  up  the  art  and  manufactures 
of  France  by  encouraging  them  in  every  way.  He  was 
the  largest  single  purchaser,  and  his  extravagance  was 
a  settled  policy  agreed  upon  between  himself  and  his 
great  minister,  Colbert.  The  latter  endeavored,  with 
considerable  success,  to  naturalize  in  France  the  indus- 
tries of  other  countries.  Frenchmen  were  no  longer  to 
turn  to  England  for  leather,  to  Holland  for  woven  ma- 
terials, to  Venice  for  mirrors,  to  Persia  for  rugs.  Articles 
displayed  in  the  palace  of  Versailles  were  advertised 
better  than  they  could  have  been  in  any  other  way. 


fetes  AND  AMUSEMENTS  41 

They  were  in  demand  at  all  the  courts  of  Europe.  In 
1667  the  French  government  had  taken  over  the  factory 
of  the  Gobelin  brothers  and  had  renamed  it  the  "  royal 
manufactory  of  the  crown  furniture."  It  fabricated  not 
only  tapestries,  but  also  every  kind  of  object  in  metal, 
marble,  wood,  agate,  lapis  lazuli,  and  mosaics,  even 
locks  for  doors  and  bolts  for  windows.  The  King  felt 
called  upon  to  encourage  the  new  enterprise  to  the  ut- 
most, and  but  for  his  wars  the  final  result  might  have 
been  very  different. 

The  costumes  at  these  balls  in  the  Galerie  des  glaces 
were,  of  course,  of  very  great  magnificence  indeed.  The 
royal  family,  including  the  men,  wore  cloth  of  gold, 
cloth  of  silver,  and  velvets  embroidered  with  gold ;  while 
jewels  were  attached  wherever  it  was  possible.  But 
even  ordinary  nobles,  like  the  Due  de  Saint-Simon,  wore 
garments,  on  grand  occasions  at  least,  that  cost  many 
thousands  of  francs.  Madame  de  Sevigne  once  asserts 
that  no  one  dared  to  wear  material  worth  less  than  a 
hundred  francs  a  yard,  or  even  a  hundred  and  fifty.  She 
tells  us  further  that  the  same  costume  could  not  be  worn 
more  than  twice,  or  there  would  be  humiliating  references 
to  the  old-clothes  man. 

The  King  was  fond  of  giving  dances  elsewhere,  too, 
than  in  the  Galerie  des  glaces.  He  would  build  a  ball 
room  for  the  night  somewhere  in  the  park.  The  one  in 
our  illustration  is  probably  merely  a  temporary  building, 


42  A  LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

though  the  place  where  it  stood  is  still  called  the 
salle  de  bal.  You  will  notice  that  only  one  couple  is 
dancing:  that  amusement  was  always  more  for  the 
spectators  than  for  those  who  performed.  A  space, 
usually  rectangular,  would  be  reserved,  with  the  King's 
arm-chair  and  that  of  the  Queen  at  the  head ;  the  dancers 
faced  them,  while  the  rest  of  the  court  sat  at  the  sides  on 
stools  or  benches.  At  one  of  the  largest  fetes  the  length 
of  the  place  reserved  was  only  fifty  feet. 

Madame  has  left  two  letters  regarding  court  balls: 
"Thursday,  immediately  after  supper,"  she  writes,  "the 
King  took  his  seat  in  the  salon  [at  Marly]  which  was 
arranged  for  a  ball.  Then  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 
came  in,  prettily  disguised  as  Flora  with  nothing  but 
silk  flowers,  which  were  most  becoming.  She  had  many 
ladies  about  her,  to  whom  it  was  not  so  becoming.  Among 
the  other  Floras  is  the  Duchesse  de  Sully,  who  is  rather 
short  and  stout.  Monsieur  and  I  went  to  Paris  the  next 
day  to  hear  mass  and  baptize  the  bell  at  St.  Eustache. 
I  nearly  laughed  aloud,  for  they  had  wreathed  a  gar- 
land round  the  bell  and  hung  a  piece  of  brocade  from  it. 
So  the  bell,  too,  is  dressed  as  Flora.  She  was  as  like  the 
Duchesse  de  Sully  as  two  drops  of  water." 

"The  other  day,"  Madame  writes  later,  "I  too  had 
to  put  on  a  mask  in  my  old  age.  My  whole  disguise 
was  a  piece  of  green  silk.  I  bound  it  to  a  forked  stick 
surmounted  by  a  great  rose  of  ribbon.    The  silk  was 


Thk  IIoyal  Family  at  a  Ball 


fetes  AND  AMUSEMENTS  43 

open  from  the  head  to  below  the  waist.  I  got  inside 
with  all  my  clothes,  tied  it  round  my  neck  and  took  the 
stick  in  my  hand.  My  figure  could  not  be  seen,  and, 
because  of  the  height,  I  seemed  thin.  ...  I  made  the 
King  quite  impatient,  for  whenever  he  looked  at  me,  I 
lowered  the  stick,  as  if  courtesying.  He  was  finally  really 
vexed,  and  asked  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  'Who  is 
that  tall  mask  who  bows  to  me  every  moment?'  She 
laughed  and  at  last  said,  "It  is  Madame."  I  thought  the 
King  would  laugh  himself  sick.  I  played  still  another 
trick  on  him:  some  one  took  me  out  to  dance;  I  took 
out  the  King.  The  Due  de  Berry  and  three  others  had 
comical  disguises:  They  were  covered  with  pieces  of 
gold,  gold  masks,  and  silver  scarves,  just  like  the  gilded 
lamp  stands.  They  had  sconces  on  their  heads  and 
went  and  placed  themselves  in  the  four  corners  of  the 
room." 

Fountains,  windmills,  yew  trees,  chess  men,  bats, 
were  among  the  other  disguises  that  we  hear  of  at  balls 
at  Versailles.  On  one  occasion  all  the  ornaments  on  a 
mantel-piece  were  copied.  Whole  menageries,  the  whole 
seraglio  of  the  Sultan,  would  come  in.  Once  a  ship  sailed 
up  to  the  door,  and  sailors  and  maidens'  alighted  and 
danced. 

After  the  ball  there  would  often  be  a  grand  illumina- 
tion with  fireworks  on  a  gigantic  scale. 

What  Madame  dearly  loved  were  the  fetes  held  out 


44  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

of  doors  by  moonlight  or  in  connection  with  grand 
illuminations.  Of  these  Felibien  wrote  in  1674:  "One 
of  the  things  which  is  very  remarkable  in  the  fetes  and 
diversions  with  which  the  King  regales  his  court  is  the 
promptness  which  accompanies  their  magnificence;  for 
his  orders  are  executed  with  such  diligence  through  the 
care  and  special  effort  of  those  who  are  in  charge  that 
no  one  would  believe  it  was  not  all  done  by  a  miracle. 
To  one's  surprise  one  seems  to  see  in  a  moment,  and 
without  its  having  been  anticipated,  theatres  erected, 
groves  ornamented  and  enriched  with  fountains  and 
statues,  collations  made  ready,  and  a  thousand  more 
things  done  which  seem  impossible  of  performance  — 
except  with  the  expenditure  of  much  time  and  with  the 
trouble  of  an  infinite  number  of  workmen.  Yet  as  often 
as  not  the  court  does  not  even  notice  the  preparations 
for  all  these  different  fetes;  and  the  employment  of  so 
many  workmen  in  the  place  where  they  are  arranging 
them  gives  so  little  annoyance  that  one  simply  does  not 
see  them." 

Dussieux,  who  gives  this  extract  from  Felibien,  tells 
us  in  his  history  of  the  palace  of  the  different  diversions 
that  fill  the  six  days  of  fetes  given  in  the  summer  of 
1674.  The  festivities  began  with  a  collation  at  the 
fountain  called  the  marais,  "the  beauty  of  which  was 
enhanced  by  an  infinity  of  porcelain  vases  filled  with 
flowers   and   by   garlands   of  flowers.     The   fruits   were 


X 


X 


FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  45 

served  in  bowls  and  dishes  of  porcelain,  in  baskets,  and 
in  vases  of  all  sizes  made  of  real  ice." 

This  marais  was  a  curious  basin  or  pool  designed  by 
Madame  de  Montespan.  From  every  leaf  of  the  tree  in 
the  centre,  from  the  tip  of  every  reed,  spouted  a  jet  of 
water.  At  the  side  were  great  marble  buffets  on  which 
the  water  was  made  to  whirl  into  the  shape  of  crystal 
vases. 

"Towards  eight  o'clock,"  continues  Dussieux,  "they 
went  to  assist  at  the  representation  of  Alceste,  an  opera 
by  Quinault  and  Lully,  performed  by  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Music.  The  theatre  was  prepared  in  the  cour  de 
marbre,  all  the  windows  of  which  were  lighted  by  a 
double  row  of  candles.  The  sides  of  the  courtyard  were 
decorated  with  orange  trees,  with  garlands,  and  with 
great  girandoles  of  crystal  and  silver  bearing  lighted 
candles.  The  marble  fountain  in  the  centre  of  the  court- 
yard was  surrounded  by  girandoles  and  vases  of  flowers. 
The  water  which  escaped  from  the  fountain  to  fall  back 
into  the  pool  was  caught  by  vases  of  flowers  in  such  a 
way  that  the  sound  of  its  falling  should  not  interrupt 
the  voices  of  the  singers  or  the  harmonies  of  the  mu- 
sicians. Everything  was  collected  there,  water,  lights, 
flowers,  that  could  form  the  richest  adornments  of  a 
theatre.  After  the  performance  they  went  to  supper,  or 
medianocche,  in  the  palace." 

At  the  second  fete,  which  was  held  at  the  Trianon, 


46  A  LADY  OF  THE  OLD   REGIME 

they  played  an  intermezzo  by  Quinault  and  Lully  called 
the  "Eclogue  of  Versailles";  at  the  third  there  was 
rowing  in  splendidly  decorated  gondolas  to  the  sound  of 
music,  after  which,  in  an  impromptu  theatre  near  the 
Grotto  of  Thetis,  the  latest  comedy  of  Moliere,  Le 
Malade  imaginaire,  was  performed. 

"For  the  fourth  day,"  writes  Dussieux,  "the  King  had 
given  orders  that  the  fete  should  be  still  more  magnifi- 
cent and  more  sumptuous  than  the  preceding  ones.  The 
collation  was  served  at  the  Theatre  d'Eau.  The  steps  form- 
ing the  amphitheatre  served  as  tables  to  receive  the  food. 
Orange  trees  loaded  with  fruit  and  blossoms,  apple  and  ap- 
ricot trees,  peach  trees  covered  with  fruit,  and  oleanders, 
all  placed  in  greatporcelain  vases,  three  hundred  porcelain 
bowls  full  of  fruit,  a  hundred  and  twenty  baskets  full  of 
pasties  and  dry  confectionery,  four  hundred  crystal  cups 
full  of  ices,  an  infinity  of  caraffes  containing  cordials,  made 
a  very  beautiful  arrangement  of  form  and  color.  The 
great  spouting  jets  of  this  bosquet,  with  the  great  yew  trees 
cut  in  sharp  pyramids,  added  new  zest  to  the  collation." 

Afterwards  came  an  opera  and  then  all  "went  driv- 
ing in  caleches  through  the  park,  valets  lighting  the 
way  with  torches,  and  assisted  at  fireworks  set  off  over 
the  canal.  Then  they  came  back  to  the  palace  and  supped 
in  the  marble  courtyard.  This  was  lighted  by  a  column 
of  light  placed  on  an  immense  pedestal,  around  which 
was  arranged  a  table  with  fifty  places." 


o 


o 

ft* 

En 


at 
o 

H 


O 


D 
►J 


FETES   AND  AMUSEMENTS  47 

On  the  evening  of  the  fifth  day  "the  company,  in  thirty 
six-horse  coaches,  drove  in  the  park.  They  supped  in  a 
grove  and  then  assisted,  in  a  theatre  erected  in  the 
orangery,  at  the  performance  of  Iphigenie,  a  new  tragedy 
by  Racine.  .  .  .  Then  they  went  to  see  the  great  sheet 
of  water  which  forms  the  head  of  the  canal  illuminated 
in  a  manner  which  surprised  every  one;  for,  besides  the 
front,  the  rest  too  was  surrounded  by  a  balustrade  six 
feet  high  ornamented  with  fleurs-de-lis  and  with  mono- 
grams of  the  King;  the  whole  made  in  an  extraordinary 
way." 

Felibien  has  described  the  last  day  of  these  fetes  of 
1674  with  a  vividness  that  only  an  eye-witness  could  have 
achieved :  "When  his  Majesty  left  the  palace  at  one  o'clock 
at  night,  —  and  it  was  the  darkest  and  stillest  night  there 
has  been  for  a  long  time,  —  one  saw  in  this  great  obscurity 
all  the  parterres  in  a  tracery  of  lights.  The  great  terrace 
in  front  of  the  palace  was  bordered  with  a  double  row  of 
flames  placed  at  a  distance  of  two  feet  from  each  other. 
The  balustrades  and  steps  of  the  Horseshoe,  and  in  general 
all  the  fountains  in  the  lesser  park,  were  surrounded  by 
similar  lights ;  and  these  being  reflected  in  the  pools  gave 
double  illumination.  From  the  midst  of  these  pools  and 
of  these  lights  one  saw  rising  a  thousand  jets  of  water 
which  seemed  like  flames  of  silver  projected  with  violence, 
each  shedding  a  thousand  sparks. 

'The  lights  with  which  the  ground  was  covered  marked 


in 


48  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

out  new  parterres  and  formed  figures  of  fire  in  place  of 
flowers  and  verdure.  At  the  end  of  the  grand  Allee 
Royale  the  Bassin  d' Apollo  was  illuminated  in  the  same 
way ;  and,  beyond,  one  saw  the  grand  canal,  which  seemed 
in  the  distance  a  crystal  mirror  of  vast  extent.  It  was 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  luminous  bodies,  but  shedding 
a  gentle  light  and  with  none  of  the  motion  that  one  sees 
in  ordinary  flames.  These  bodies  threw  no  shadows. 
They  represented  various  figures  which  one  could  scarcely 
make  out  in  the  distance,  their  reflections  appearing  in 
the  water,  which  was  no  less  immovable  than  the  light 
itself;  so  that  the  profound  silence  and  obscurity  in  which 
one  found  oneself  was  very  much  as  the  poets  describe 
the  Elysian  Fields,  which  they  depict  as  a  land  lighted  by 
a  precious  light  and  with  a  sun  and  stars  all  of  its  own." 

Dussieux  tells  us  that  around  the  canal  were  distributed 
six  hundred  and  fifty  great  stands  of  light,  each  nine  feet 
high ;  that  at  the  four  corners  of  the  cross-arm  that  leads 
from  the  Menagerie  to  the  Trianon  there  were  great  pavil- 
ions thirty  feet  long  and  twenty-two  feet  high,  which 
emitted  floods  of  light ;  that  at  the  Trianon  there  was  a 
car  of  Neptune  and  at  the  Menagerie  a  car  of  Apollo; 
while  at  the  very  end  of  the  canal  was  an  immense  palace 
rendered  all  luminous  by  lights  in  the  rear. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  all  these  fetes  was  given  for 
Madame  de  la  Valliere  in  1664.  It  lasted  three  days. 
The    subject  was    taken    from  the    Orlando  Furioso  of 


FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  49 

Ariosto,  and  represented  the  sojourn  of  Roger  in  the 
palace  of  the  enchantress,  Alcine.  The  role  of  Roger,  at 
first  at  least,  was  taken  by  the  King. 

The  entertainment  began  with  a  tournament  on  the 
tapis  vert.  The  King  and  the  princes  and  nobles  who  had 
been  chosen  to  represent  his  Paladins  entered  all  clad  in 
most  magnificent  garments  and  glittering  with  precious 
stones,  while  their  horses,  too,  were  superbly  caparisoned. 
After  the  Paladins  came  an  immense  car,  eighteen  feet 
high,  twenty-four  long,  and  fifteen  broad  and  carrying 
Apollo,  at  whose  feet  were  the  four  ages,  the  Age  of  Gold, 
of  Silver,  of  Bronze,  and  of  Iron.  Father  Time,  who  was 
in  reality  Louis  XIV's  coachman,  drove  the  four  splendid 
horses  that  were  attached  to  the  car.  The  twelve  hours, 
the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  and  a  crowd  of  pages  surrounded 
it.  The  prize  for  the  tournament,  which  was  won  by  the 
Marquis  de  la  Valliere,  was  a  sword  of  gold  studded  with 
diamonds. 

The  second  day  was  given  up  to  the  performance  of  a 
comedy  by  Moliere  in  an  impromptu  open-air  theatre 
with  the  grand  canal  for  a  background.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  music  and  by  dances  executed  by  shepherds, 
shepherdesses,  and  fauns. 

On  the  third  and  last  day  a  great  stage  had  been  erected 
at  the  back  of  the  Bassin  oV Apollo.  In  the  background 
was  the  palace  of  Alcine  raised  on  a  rock.  On  either  side 
were   masts   from   which   hung  tapestries,   while   below 


50  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

were  lines  of  rocks  which  served  as  a  resting-place  for  the 
musicians.     The  pool  itself  formed  the  enchanted  lake. 

First  came  a  concert,  then  three  great  whales  emerged 
from  the  side  of  the  palace,  carrying  Alcine  and  two  com- 
panions on  their  backs  and  swimming  to  the  shore.  Then 
arose  a  dispute  as  to  whence  these  monsters  came,  some 
saying  that  the  fishermen  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay  had  taken 
them  and  brought  them  there  alive,  others  that  they 
were  fishes  which  had  only  recently  been  put  in  the  pool, 
but  had  grown  up  very  quickly.  For,  as  Alcine  and  her 
companions  explained,  "  Without  much  labor  one  reaps 
fertile  harvests  in  the  fields  of  Kings,  and  their  waters  are 
always  so  good  and  healthy  that  the  smallest  little  fishes 
quickly  become  great  whales."  As  Alcine  returns  to  her 
palace,  it  opens  and  displays  marvels  of  architecture. 
Then  ballets  are  danced  by  giants,  dwarfs,  Moors, 
knights,  monsters,  and  demons.  Finally  Roger,  repre- 
sented now  by  another  than  the  King,  prepares  to  depart. 
Alcine  rushes  up  to  prevent  him,  but  he  has  on  his  finger 
the  famous  ring  which  gives  him  power  to  destroy  en- 
chantments. There  is  a  clap  of  thunder  and  a  flash  of 
lightning ;  then  the  whole  palace  goes  up  in  a  magnificent 
burst  of  flames.  " Never,"  says  the  contemporary  de- 
scription, "did  one  see  a  more  agreeable  conflagration. 
Air,  earth,  and  water  were  covered  now  with  flying  rockets, 
and  now  with  sheaves  of  flame ;  now  a  thousand  serpents 
darted  from  the  island  over  the  heads  of  the  spectators." 


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FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  51 

It  was  a  bold  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  praise  the  water 
of  Versailles.  In  Saint-Simon's  time,  at  least,  it  smelled 
horribly,  and  there  was  never  enough.  It  took  long  prep- 
aration and  storing  of  water  each  time  that  all  the  foun- 
tains played.  This  was  a  sore  point  with  Louis  XIV, 
who  greatly  envied  the  superior  resources  of  Chantilly. 
He  spent  millions  on  his  water  supply.  The  engineers 
once  declared  that  it  was  possible  to  deflect  a  part  of 
the  river  Loire  to  Versailles,  and  by  a  little  hyperbole 
the  prospect  was  held  out  to  Louis  of  seeing  ships  sail 
direct  from  the  Loire  over  the  mountains  to  the  grand 
canal  of  Versailles.  One  of  the  great  glories  of  his  reign 
had  been  the  Languedoc  Canal,  connecting  several  small 
rivers  and  forming  a  continuous  waterway  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mediterranean.  This  had  been  completed 
in  1682  at  a  cost  of  17,000,000  francs,  of  which,  however, 
the  king  paid  only  half.  The  chief  promoter  of  the  enter- 
prise —  the  De  Lesseps  of  his  day  —  was  a  certain  Riquet 
who  now  assured  Louis  that  all  the  necessary  levels  had 
been  taken,  and  who  agreed  to  carry  through  the  enter- 
prise for  the  sum  of  2,400,000  francs.  But  Charles  Per- 
rault,  whose  interest  in  fairy  stories  had  not  made  him 
unpractical,  urged  Louis  to  verify  the  measurements. 
This  was  done  with  great  care,  a  new  instrument  on  the 
lead-and-line  principle,  but  with  hair  instead  of  string, 
being  invented  for  the  purpose,  and  the  whole  being  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences.     It  was  found 


52  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD   REGIME 

that  to  reach  Versailles  the  water  would  have  to  run  up- 
hill, and  the  project  was  abandoned. 

Louis  then  constructed  the  waterworks  in  the  Seine 
at  Marly.  Dikes  enclosed  a  whole  arm  of  the  river,  raising 
the  level  of  the  water  ten  feet  and  making  a  waterfall 
which  turned  fourteen  wheels,  each  thirty-six  feet  in 
diameter.  These  worked  sixty-four  pumps  which  pumped 
the  water  in  conduits  to  a  height  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  feet,  whence  seventy-two  more  pumps  carried  it  to 
the  Marly  aqueduct.  The  cost  was  three  and  a  half 
million  francs. 

But  even  then  the  supply  was  unsatisfactory  in  quan- 
tity ;  while  the  water  that  was  used  was  already  polluted 
by  the  drainage  of  Paris.  Resort  was  had  to  catch-basins 
to  preserve  the  rain-water,  and  Louis  at  last  returned 
again  to  the  plan  of  diverting  some  stream  to  Versailles. 
It  was  found"  that  the  little  river  Eure,  running  between 
Chartres  and  Maintenon  at  a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  was 
eighty  feet  higher  than  the  highest  Versailles  reservoir. 
But  there  was  a  valley  three  miles  wide  over  which  the 
water  would  have  to  be  carried  by  an  aqueduct  held 
up  by  two  hundred  and  forty  arches  of  great  height. 
It  shows  Louis'  indomitable  courage  that  this  work  was 
actually  begun  and  carried  on  for  three  years.  The  ques- 
tion of  labor  was  solved  in  a  truly  imperial  fashion  by 
ordering  twenty-two  thousand  soldiers  to  the  spot,  to 
whom  were  joined  eight  thousand  skilled  laborers.     Ter- 


FETES   AND    AMUSEMENTS  53 

rible  epidemics  broke  out,  and  between  eight  and  nine 
million  francs  had  been  spent  on  the  enterprise  when  the 
war  of  1688  began,  causing  the  King  to  withdraw  his  troops 
and  greatly  to  retrench  in  the  matter  of  expenses.  The 
ruins  of  the  masonry  work  are  still  to  be  seen. 

One  of  the  chief  pleasures  of  Louis  XIV's  court  was  the 
theatre,  and  Madame  especially  found  delight  in  the  per- 
formances. The  plays  as  a  rule  were  by  Racine,  Corneille, 
or  Moliere.  Madame  writes  of  Corneille  in  1677:  "Since 
I  see  that  your  Grace  is  pleased  at  Corneille's  plays  again 
coming  into  vogue,  I  must  tell  you  that  they  are  now 
playing  the  older  ones  in  succession.  That  is  my  greatest 
pleasure  in  Paris  when  I  go  there.  Poor  Corneille  is  so 
happy  over  it  that  he  assures  me  it  makes  him  young 
enough  to  write  another  fine  play  before  he  dies."  Much 
later  Madame  writes  of  a  curious  bar  to  her  enjoyment 
of  the  theatre  in  Paris,  having  stated  elsewhere  that  the 
custom  did  not  prevail  in  Versailles:  "The  people  have 
the  bad  taste  to  stand  and  sit  in  crowds  on  the  stage  so 
that  there  is  no  room  for  the  actors.  It  is  very  unpleasant. 
Yesterday  we  had  a  new  tragedy,  which  is  not  bad,  but 
the  actors  could  not  get  through  for  the  crowd  of  people." 

One  or  more  plays  formed  part  of  almost  every  fete 
that  was  given  at  Versailles.  There  was  a  theatre  in  the 
palace  almost  adjoining  Madame's  room;  but  plays  were 
also  given  in  temporary  out-door  theatres,  and  the  arrange- 
ments would  often  be  made  by  Moliere  himself.     It  is 


54  A   LADY  OF   THE  OLD  REGIME 

safe  to  say  that  not  a  single  evening  passed  without  some 
form  of  entertainment.  Three  times  a  week  took  place 
what  was  known  as  the  "apartment,"  so  named  from  the 
grand  or  state  apartments  in  which  it  was  held.  In 
one  of  her  letters  Madame  has  described  this  function 
with  great  detail. 

Assembling  at  about  six  o'clock,  —  the  ladies  in  the 
Queen's  bedchamber,  the  gentlemen  in  the  King's  cabinet, 
—  they  joined  forces  in  the  Galerie  des  glaces  and  then 
marched  in  procession  through  all  the  rooms.  In  the 
last  one,  the  Salle  d'abondance,  refreshments  were  served, 
while  another  room  was  supplied  with  quantities  of  light 
wines.  This  small  repast  over,  the  guests  wandered  back 
and  joined  in  whatever  form  of  amusemen  most  appealed 
to  them.  The  King  himself  often  took  a  hand  at  billiards, 
while  others  sat  down  to  cards  or  to  one  of  the  numerous 
other  games  for  which  preparations  had  been  made. 
Madame  writes:  "Those  who  do  not  play,  like  myself 
and  many  others,  wander  round  from  room  to  room  — 
now  to  the  music,  now  to  the  games;  for  one  is  allowed 
to  go  where  one  pleases."  We  have  an  engraving  of 
Madame  and  the  other  princesses  listening  to  the  music 
in  the  fourth  room.  Madame  is  in  the  arm-chair  to  the 
left  of  the  picture.  On  her  right  is  the  Due  de  Bourgogne, 
one  year  before  his  marriage ;  on  her  left  is  her  daughter- 
in-law.     Standing  are  Madame's  two  children. 

The  King  quite  often  varied  the  entertainment  at  the 


x 

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Pi 

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FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  55 

"apartment "  by  holding  a  lottery  in  which  all  the  lots  were 
free,  or  by  distributing  rich  gifts  in  some  other  fashion. 
This  was  always  intended  as  a  surprise,  and  once  at  Marly 
when  the  King  found  that  his  intention  had  been  divined, 
and  that  ladies  were  applying  in  crowds  for  invitations, 
he  countermanded  the  entertainment  and  gave  the  prizes 
to  Madame  and  the  other  inmates  of  the  palace.  We 
hear  of  one  occasion  on  which  he  distributed  in  one  even- 
ing 60,000  francs'  worth  of  rich  dress  materials.  These 
materials  could  be  very  rich  indeed.  Some  of  the  silks 
were  painted  by  hand.  We  hear  of  one  dress  of  Madame 
de  Montespan's  as  "gold  on  gold,  embroidered  and  bor- 
dered with  gold,  and  trimmed  with  curled  gold,  which 
makes  the  divinest  fabric  ever  imagined." 

Even  the  most  sober  accounts  of  the  King's  munificence 
sound  like  pages  from  the  "Arabian  Nights."  Dangeau 
writes  under  the  heading  "Marly,  28  Jan.  1688" :  "About 
six  o'clock  the  Dauphiness  arrived,  having  brought  in 
her  coaches  thirty  ladies  who  all  supped  there.  A  little 
after  the  Dauphiness's  arrival  the  King  pointed  to  a  great 
chest  from  China  and  said  that  a  few  trifles  had  remained 
over  from  the  last  lottery  and  begged  her  to  be  good  enough 
to  open  it.  She  found  there,  first,  some  magnificent  fab- 
rics, and  then  another  box  in  which  there  were  many 
ribbons,  and  still  another  box  with  very  beautiful  head- 
dresses. Finally,  after  finding  seven  or  eight  different 
boxes  or  baskets  each  more  beautiful  than  the  other,  she 


56  A   LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

opened  the  last  one,  which  was  a  box  of  jewellery, 
very  handsome ;  and  in  it  was  a  bracelet  of  pearls,  and 
in  a  secret  compartment  in  the  middle  of  the  box  a 
coulant  of  diamonds  and  a  cross  of  diamonds,  a  mag- 
nificent one.  The  Dauphiness  distributed  the  ribbons, 
muffs,  and  aprons  to  the  ladies  who  had  come  with 
her." 

In  this  generosity  the  King  showed  his  usual  shrewd- 
ness. Colbert  writes:  "The  manufactories  of  draperies 
must  be  assisted  with  protection  and  with  money,  and 
encouraged  to  make  fine  materials  for  the  King's  dress 
.  .  .  and  should  the  King  one  day  come  to  like  bright 
colors  the  drapers  are  to  be  ordered  to  manufacture  their 
cloths  to  suit  the  King."  But  the  King  in  turn  agreed 
to  pay  800,000  livres  yearly  for  the  purchase  of  materials 
—  a  government  subsidy,  if  one  likes.  These  royal  manu- 
factories throve  as  never  before  in  French  history.  The 
royal  lace  manufactory  established  in  1670  occupied 
twenty  thousand  working  women  and  marked  an  era  in 
economic  development  by  introducing  a  complete  division 
of  labor  such  as  the  old  trade  gilds  had  never  permitted. 
And  there  is  another  side  still  to  their  beneficent  effects. 
The  royal  manufactories,  so  long  as  they  were  thriving, 
staved  off  the  persecution  of  the  Protestants,  who  were 
the  best  workers.  We  have  the  regulations  for  the  manu- 
factory of  cloth  of  gold,  cloth  of  silver,  and  silk  at  St. 
Maur:   the  workmen  are  never  to  "discuss  the  mysteries 


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FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  57 

of  religion,"  never  to  " speak  irreverently  of  holy  things." 
No  workman  shall  give  any  opprobrious  nickname  to  his 
companions.  It  is  permitted  to  sing  songs  (undoubtedly 
Protestant  hymns)  if  it  be  done  in  so  low  a  voice  that  the 
neighbor  is  not  disturbed.  It  is  an  attempt  to  establish 
a  modus  vivendi  and  to  make  the  Protestants  feel  at 
home. 

We  have  an  engraving  of  the  fifth  room  of  the  "  apart- 
ment," where  the  princesses  are  listening  to  the  rendering 
of  a  song  by  a  young  woman.  The  date  is  1696. 
Madame  is  easily  recognizable ;  she  is  now  the  first 
lady  in  France,  and  no  other  lady  can  have  an  arm-chair 
when  she  is  present.  The  ladies  wear  muffs,  even  indoors ; 
and  the  head-dresses  are  very  elaborate,  with  numerous 
jewels.  Madame  herself  writes  about  head-dresses  in 
1688:  "I  come  to  the  matter  of  coiffures.  I  am  sure  if 
your  Grace  could  see  what  pains  the  women  take  to  make 
themselves  hideous,  you  would  laugh  heartily.  Even  I 
cannot  quite  get  used  to  such  masquerading.  Daily  they 
pile  it  higher  and  higher.  I  fancy  it  will  end  by  the  doors 
having  to  be  raised,  or  they  won't  be  able  to  go  in  or  out. 
When  the  women  are  in  hoods,  they  look  like  the  Melusina 
I  once  saw  in  an  old  book  in  the  late  Elector's  library. 
The  trains  of  the  dresses,  too,  will  finally  turn  into  snakes 
like  hers." 

She  writes  again  in  1696:  "The  head-dresses  here  are 
very   high,   but  the   hair   itself  is  not  piled   as  high  as 


58  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

formerly,  and  is  not  drawn  so  tight;  nor  are  the  head- 
dresses so  straight  up  and  down.  They  bend  them  for- 
ward now  to  such  an  extent  that  as  soon  as  two  women 
come  close  and  speak  to  each  other,  the  points  catch  so 
that  one  cannot  get  loose  without  calling  a  third  person 
to  disengage  one.  My  daughter  and  I  got  stuck  that  way 
twice  yesterday;  it  is  really  comical."  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  this  description  was  written  in  the  same  year 
that  our  picture  was  engraved,  so  that  one  can  compare 
the  two. 

Madame  wore  her  hair  covering  her  ears.  She  once 
writes:  "I  have  not  adopted  the  fashion  of  having  no 
hair  over  the  face  and  of  showing  the  ears.  I  cannot  bear 
not  having  the  ears  covered."  And  again  after  an  inter- 
val of  nearly  twenty  years :  "Here  beauties  are  excessively 
rare.  It  is  quite  out  of  fashion  to  be  beautiful.  The 
ladies  are  partly  to  blame ;  for,  by  drawing  back  the  hair 
tight  over  the  temples  and  letting  the  ears  show,  they  all 
look  like  white  rabbits  which  are  held  up  by  the  ears  for 
fear  they  might  escape." 

One  of  the  rooms  in  which  the  "apartment  "  was 
held  was  called  par  excellence,  "the  grand  apartment." 
It  is  otherwise  known  as  the  Salon  de  Mars,  and  was 
in  demand  for  concerts  and  for  smaller  balls.  A  bal- 
cony for  musicians  had  been  constructed  at  one  end, 
and  a  tribune,  or  stand,  for  spectators  at  the  other.  It 
is  in  connection  with   this  room  that  Saint-Simon   re- 


FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS  59 

lates  an  anecdote  which  would  seem  incredible  were  it 
not  elsewhere  well  vouched  for:  "The  grand  apart- 
ment, from  the  gallery,  namely,  to  the  tribune,  was  fur- 
nished in  crimson  velvet  with  crepines  and  fringes  of  gold. 
One  fine  morning  it  was  discovered  that  these  had  all  been 
cut  off.  This  seemed  astonishing  in  a  place  so  traversed 
in  the  daytime,  so  well  closed  at  night,  and  so  carefully 
guarded  at  all  times.  Bontemps  [the  King's  valet  de 
chambre],  in  despair,  made  and  instituted  every  kind  of  a 
search,  but  utterly  without  success.  Five  or  six  days 
later  I  was  at  the  King's  supper ;  between  the  King  and 
me  there  was  only  D'Aquin,  the  King's  first  physician, 
and  between  me  and  the  table  no  one.  About  the 
entremets  course  I  saw  a  certain  something,  very  large 
and  apparently  black,  in  the  air  above  the  table.  What 
it  was  I  could  neither  make  out  nor  explain,  because  of 
the  rapidity  with  which  this  great  thing  fell  on  the  end 
of  the  table  in  front  of  the  regular  places  of  Monsieur 
and  Madame,  who  were  in  Paris,  and  who  always  sat  at 
the  end  of  the  table,  to  the  left  of  the  King  and  with  their 
backs  to  the  windows  which  look  out  on  the  great  court- 
yard. The  noise  this  thing  made  in  falling,  and  its 
weight,  almost  broke  the  table  and  made  the  dishes  jump, 
but  did  not  upset  one  of  them.  By  mere  chance  it  fell 
on  the  table-cloth  and  not  among  the  dishes.  The  King, 
at  the  sound,  turned  his  head  half  round  and  without 
showing  the  very  least  emotion:    'I  imagine/  he  said, 


60  A   LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

'that  those  are  my  fringes/  It  was  in  truth  a  package 
larger  round  than  a  priest's  hat  with  its  flat  borders,  and 
in  height  —  looking  like  a  badly  made  pyramid  —  about 
two  feet.  It  had  come  from  far  behind  me  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  door  communicating  between  the  two  ante- 
chambers, and  a  piece  of  fringe  which  had  become  de- 
tached in  the  air  had  fallen  on  top  of  the  King's  wig. 
Livry  [the  King's  first  maitre  d'hdtel],  who  was  on  his  left, 
noticed  this  and  removed  it.  He  went  to  the  end  of  the 
table  and  saw  that  it  actually  was  the  fringes  twisted  into 
a  bundle,  and  every  one  else  saw  it  too.  There  was  a 
moment  of  murmuring.  Livry,  about  to  remove  the 
package,  found  a  note  attached  to  it,  which  he  took, 
leaving  the  package.  The  King  stretched  out  his  hand 
and  said,  'Let  us  see  it.'  Livry,  and  rightly,  would  not, 
and  stepping  back,  read  it  in  a  low  voice  and  gave  it 
to  D'Aquin  behind  the  King's  back.  I  read  it  with 
D'Aquin  as  he  held  it  in  his  hands.  It  contained,  in  a 
feigned  handwriting,  and  with  long  letters  like  those  of  a 
woman,  these  words :  'Take  back  your  fringes,  Bontemps, 
they  are  more  trouble  than  they  are  worth.  I  kiss  the 
King's  hand.'  The  letter  was  rolled  and  not  closed. 
The  King  tried  again  to  take  it  from  the  hands  of  D'Aquin, 
who  stepped  back,  smelled  it,  rubbed  it,  turned  it  over  and 
over,  and  then  showed  it  to  the  King,  but  without  allow- 
ing him  to  touch  it.  The  King  bade  him  read  it  aloud, 
although  he  himself  was  reading  it  at  the  same  time. 


s 

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FETES   AND   AMUSEMENTS 


61 


'Well/  said  the  King,  'that  is  an  insolent  fellow/  but 
in  a  perfectly  even  and,  as  it  were,  historical  tone.  .  .  . 
Never  have  they  been  able  to  discover  anything  more 
about  this  theft  or  about  the  singular  boldness  of  the 
restitution." 


CHAPTER  III 
Etiquette  and  Prerogatives 


The  position  of  Madame  in  France  was  so  exalted 
as  to  make  a  short  study  of  her  prerogatives  well  worth 
while.  In  the  first  place  she  was  a  "  Daughter  of  France." 
The  enfants  de  France  were  the  children  of  the  King  and 
the  brothers  of  the  King,  as  well  as  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren. These  were  all  entitled  to  be  called  "your  royal 
highness." 

The  designation  " Madame"  was  peculiarly  distinctive. 
"Apropos  of  letters,"  she  once  writes,  "when  you  write 
my  address,  put  simply  'For  Madame,'  but  not  'Madame 
d'Orleans';   otherwise  they  will  laugh  at  it  here." 

Madame  was  provided  with  a  household,  or  retinue, 
entirely  separate  from  her  husband's.  She  had  her 
first  almoner,  her  first  equerry,  her  first  master  of  the 
household,  her  captain  of  the  guards,  her  squires  and 
pages,  her  porte-manteau,  her  mistress  of  the  robes, 
her   maids  of    honor,   her  women   of  the  bedchamber, 

62 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  63 

not  to  speak  of  her  legal  adviser,  her  treasurer,  her 
body-physician,  her  apothecary,  her  barber,  etc.  In 
all  it  is  probable  that  she  had  more  than  two  hundred 
attendants.  Later  "  Madames  "  had  as  many  as  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty.  Each  of  the  higher  officials  at  least  had 
to  swear  regular  feudal  allegiance  kneeling  on  a  cushion 
at  her  feet,  while  she  held  his  hands  folded  in  hers  during 
the  whole  of  the  taking  of  the  oath.  At  first  glance  it 
might  seem  as  if  such  households  were  not  expensive, 
for  the  incumbents  paid  large  sums  for  their  posts. 
One  of  Madame's  equerries  paid  126,000  francs,  while  in 
the  King's  household,  the  prices  rose  into  the  hundreds 
of  thousands.  Another  anomaly  was  that  an  enfant  de 
France  had  to  have  four  sets  of  retainers,  each  serving 
only  three  months.  "They  have  crazy  customs  in  this 
country,"  Madame  writes;  "another  thing  I  can  never 
get  used  to  is  the  buying  and  selling  of  posts  in  the 
household,  and  that  even  then  one  is  only  served  by 
one's  people  three  months,  and  has  to  change  every 
quarter.  What  they  have  learned  in  the  three  months 
they  lose  again  in  the  nine.  It  makes  faithless  servants, 
too,  for  they  buy  their  posts  to  profit  by  them  and  make 
as  much  as  they  can.  They  don't  allow  themselves  to 
forget  that,  and  it  teaches  them  to  steal  finely.  ...  If 
one  of  us  dies,  as  has  just  happened,  all  who  hoped  to 
profit  by  their  posts  are  in  despair." 

Madame  elsewhere  designates  an  enfant  de  France  as  a 


64  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

crowned  slave.  She  writes  once  that  the  doctors  insist 
on  her  going  to  bed  early  and  not  writing,  as  was  at  one 
time  her  habit,  until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning:  "It 
makes  me  beside  myself.  But  if  I  do  go  to  bed  too  late, 
they  tell  my  people  I  am  committing  suicide.  Then 
those  who  have  bought  posts  think  I  really  am  com- 
mitting suicide  and  come  and  torment  me."  These 
retainers,  then,  took  their  pay  in  perquisites  and  privi- 
leges. At  the  end  of  each  year  all  Madame's  dresses, 
and  even  her  laces,  went  to  the  mistress  of  the  wardrobe ; 
all  her  linen  undergarments,  skirts,  etc.,  went  to  the  first 
woman  of  the  bedchamber.  In  the  event  of  her  death 
the  master  of  the  household  had  a  lien  on  her  silver, 
and  the  first  equerry  on  the  coaches  unless  they  should 
previously  have  been  ransomed  for  money.  She  com- 
plains that  she  has  really  no  possessions  at  all.  The 
furniture  in  Versailles  is  the  King's;  that  in  the  Palais 
Royal  belongs  to  her  son. 

Even  the  King  and  Queen  had  to  give  up  their  rich 
clothes  every  year.  The  King,  who  spent  12,000  thalers 
a  month  on  his  dress,  had  so  many  garments  that  they 
were  eventually  distributed  among  a  large  number  of 
people.  How  rich  the  queen's  garments  were  may  be 
gathered  from  this  detail :  that  at  the  wedding  of  Ma- 
dame's step-daughter  in  1679,  her  Majesty  had  a  train 
of  point  lace  edged  with  silver  lace  that  was  twenty- 
seven  feet  long.  Madame's  train  on  that  occasion  was 
twenty-one  feet  long. 


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ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  65 

It  would  require  too  much  space  to  explain  all  the 
marks  of  distinction  that  were  due  Madame  as  an  enfant 
de  France.  That  she  always  drove  in  her  coach  with 
eight  horses,  indeed,  was  not  one  of  these.  She  herself 
writes  in  this  connection:  "Since  the  Queen  began  to 
drive  with  eight  horses  I  have  never  had  less.  The  first 
to  begin  it  was  the  late  Due  de  la  Feuillade.  We  need 
it  because  our  coaches  are  very  heavy.  There  is  no  rank 
about  it;  whoever  wishes  to  drive  with  eight  horses 
can  do  so.  As  I  said  before,  it  is  a  good  forty  years 
that  I  have  driven  with  eight  horses  to  my  coach;  but 
in  a  caleche  I  usually  drive  with  only  six.  It  makes  me 
laugh  that  you,  dear  Louisa,  should  think  I  drive  this 
way  with  eight  horses  because  I  am  the  first  lady.  I 
am  not  too  proud,  but  all  the  same  I  do  keep  up  my 
dignity,  as  is  proper." 

Madame  seems  to  have  had  a  special  crown  of  her 
own ;  we  see  it  as  an  accessory  of  her  portrait  (see  frontis- 
piece). She  also  had  a  right,  just  as  the  King  did,  to  a 
dais  and  to  a  balustrade  shutting  off  her  bed  from  the 
rest  of  the  room. 

The  King's  bedchamber  seems  to  have  been  regarded 
almost  as  sacred  ground.  It  is  to  this  room  that  the 
following  description  of  Felibien  applies:  "A  great  arch 
coming  down  low  serves,  on  the  west  side,  opposite  the 
windows,  to  increase  the  depth  of  this  room  and  to  make 
a  more  suitable  place  for  the  King's  bed.     Two  figures  of 


66  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

women  seated  on  the  archivolt  hold  trumpets  in  their 
hands  to  represent  fame.  All  the  interior  vaulted  sur- 
face is  covered  with  a  gilded  compartment,  with  frames 
and  rosettes  forming  a  sort  of  mosaic  on  a  white  back- 
ground. It  is  there  that  they  have  represented,  in  the 
same  expanse  of  the  vault,  France  seated  on  a  heap  of 
weapons  under  a  rich  canopy.  It  is  sculptured  in  wood 
entirely  gilded.  The  rest  of  the  same  alcove,  under  the 
cornice  which  separates  the  vault,  is  stretched  in  winter 
with  tapestry,  and  the  bed  they  have  placed  there  is 
new  and  of  a  design  as  beautiful  as  it  is  magnificent.  It 
is  of  crimson  velvet  covered  with  embroidery,  so  inter- 
woven with  gold  that  one  can  scarcely  discern  the  back- 
ground. One  sees,  too,  in  this  room  four  portieres  of 
tapestry  with  a  gold  background,  the  ornaments  of 
which,  ingeniously  worked  in,  and  the  life-size  figures, 
represent  the  four  seasons. 

We  learn  from  the  Etat  de  la  France  of  1708,  published 
with  the  royal  sanction,  that:  "They  usually  make  the 
King's  bed  while  his  Majesty  is  at  mass.  In  making  it  a 
valet  de  chambre  stands  on  either  side  and  an  upholsterer 
at  the  end.  A  valet  de  chambre  sits  within  the  balus- 
trade to  guard  the  bed,  and  at  meal  times  one  of  his 
comrades  is  careful  to  relieve  him.  This  valet  de  chambre 
has  care  of  the  bed  and  must  prevent  any  one  from  ap- 
proaching it  at  any  part  of  the  balustrade.  .  .  .  One  of 
the  valets  de  chambre  on  duty  is  to  guard  the  King's  bed 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  67 

all  day  long,  keeping  within  the  balustrade.  .  .  .  The 
ushers  are  to  see  that  no  one  puts  on  his  hat,  combs  his 
hair,  or  sits  down  in  the  room,  on  the  seats,  on  a  table, 
or  on  the  balustrade  of  the  alcove.  .  .  .  When  the 
King  leaves  Versailles  for  a  few  days,  a  valet  de  chambre 
remains  to  guard  the  bed  and  sleeps  at  the  foot  of  his 
Majesty's  bed." 

When  the  King  travelled,  he  was  preceded  by  another 
bed  and  by  a  whole  set  of  wall  hangings,  so  that  in  the 
morning  when  he  woke  it  was  always  amid  practically 
the  same  surroundings. 

Madame  held  her  levee  in  the  morning  just  as  the 
King  did,  but  of  course  with  less  ceremony.  Late  in 
life  she  describes  her  levees :  in  the  essentials  the  pro- 
ceedings were  always  the  same,  for  it  was  a  common 
thing  in  the  ceremonial  of  the  court  of  France  to  point 
to  precedents  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  old. 
Madame  relates,  then,  that  she  would  wake  in  the  morn- 
ings at  half-past  four;  would  ring,  have  .her  fire  made 
and  her  room  put  in  order;  meanwhile  she  would  be 
saying  her  morning  prayer.  About  half-past  five  she 
would  rise,  put  on  a  good  pair  of  stockings  of  otter  skin, 
a  cloth  petticoat,  and  over  this  a  long,  good,  wadded 
dressing-gown  fastened  at  the  waist  with  a  great  broad 
belt.  Then  she  would  have  two  candles  lighted  and  sit 
down  to  her  writing-table,  where  she  would  remain  until 
half-past  ten.     At  that  hour  she  would    send   for  her 


68  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

honey  water,  wash  herself  as  clean  as  she  could,  and 
rub  her  aching  knee  and  calf  [this  is  in  her  old  age] 
with  eau  vulneraire  which  the  doctor  had  prescribed. 
After  this  operation  she  would  summon  all  her  women 
of  the  bedchamber  and  sit  down  to  her  toilet,  to  which 
all  persons,  men  and  women  alike,  were  admitted.  She 
would  then  be  combed  and  coiffed.  Then  all  the  men 
folk,  except  the  doctor,  barber,  and  apothecary,  would  go 
out,  and  she  would  draw  on  her  shoes,  stockings,  and 
calegons  and  wash  her  hands.  Next,  her  ladies  in 
waiting  would  come  in  to  serve  her,  would  hand  her  the 
towel  for  washing  and  the  chemise,  after  which  all  the 
doctor  tribe  would  go  out,  and  the  tailor  would  come  in 
with  her  dress;  this  she  would  put  on  right  over  the 
chemise.  She  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  the  moment  she 
was  laced  all  the  men  folk  would  again  come  in.  The 
dress  was  so  made  that  after  the  lacing  she  was  quite 
ready,  the  skirt  being  fastened  to  the  bodice  with  hooks 
and  eyes,  and  the  manteau,  too,  being  sewn,  or  at  least 
hooked,  to  the  bodice.  She  knows  she  is  old-fashioned, 
she  writes,  but  she  has  no  desire  to  ape  the  young  people. 
She  is  so  accustomed  to  the  calegons  that  she  could  not 
go  without  them  for  a  single  day.  They  had  formerly 
been  the  fashion  in  France,  and  had  been  considered  a 
requirement  of  modesty.  Madame  de  Durasfort,  one  of 
her  ladies,  told  her  that  her  mother  had  worn  them  all 
her  life,  and  she  herself  too  —  so  long  as  her  mother 


a 
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ETIQUETTE  AND   PREROGATIVES  69 

lived.  But  now  the  fashion  has  entirely  changed,  and 
not  a  soul  in  France  except  her,  Madame,  ever  wears 
calegons.  But  she  considers  that  they  are  healthful  and 
prevent  colic. 

In  Madame's  early  days,  if  it  was  her  privilege  to  have 
the  chemise  handed  to  her  by  a  lady  of  rank,  she  in  turn 
had  to  hand  the  Queen  hers  whenever  she  was  present 
at  the  latter's  levee:  "The  Queen  certainly  did  not 
wear  a  hair  shirt,"  Madame  once  writes.  "I  have  seen 
her  naked  hundreds  of  times  when  I,  as  is  the  custom 
here,  put  on  her  Majesty's  chemise  for  her.  It  is  a  cere- 
mony. The  first  woman  of  the  bedchamber  gives  the 
chemise  to  the  maid  of  honor,  the  maid  of  honor  to  me, 
I  to  the  Queen.  If  neither  I  nor  one  of  the  petits  enfants 
de  France  is  there,  but  merely  a  princess  of  the  blood, 
the  first  woman  of  the  bedchamber  gives  the  chemise 
to  put  on  the  Queen  direct  to  her,  and  not  first  to 
the  maid  of  honor.  We  have  many  distinctions  like 
that." 

Monsieur,  who  always  handed  the  shirt  very  grace- 
fully to  the  King,  —  one  courtier  was  exiled  because  he 
did  so  awkwardly,  flapping  the  fringe  of  his  sleeve  in 
the  King's  face,  —  was  punctilious  in  requiring  the  same 
service  from  those  next  in  rank  to  himself.  The  Due  de 
Bourbon  had  evidently  registered  a  vow  not  to  hand 
Monsieur  his  shirt,  and  kept  away  from  his  levee.  But 
Monsieur,  when  in  his  dressing-gown,  once  saw  him  on 


70  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

the  terrace  in  front  of  his  window,  stepped  out,  engaged 
him  in  conversation,  backed  slowly  into  his  room,  threw 
off  his  dressing-gown,  called  for  his  shirt,  and  thus  obliged 
Monsieur  le  due,  as  he  was  called,  either  to  hand  it  or 
cause  a  scandal. 

At  the  King's  levee  a  great  number  of  people  took 
part  in  the  actual  dressing,  while  a  bevy  of  courtiers 
stood  by.  The  duties  of  each  official  were  minutely 
prescribed.  One  took  the  right,  the  other  the  left,  sleeve 
of  the  night  shirt  to  take  it  off ;  two  others  held  the  day 
shirt  in  the  same  manner,  and  two  more  held  up  the 
dressing-gown  to  momentarily  screen  the  King  from 
view.  A  set  of  men  with  one  title  attended  to  the  King's 
right  leg,  a  set  of  men  with  another  to  his  left  one.  It 
took  a  man  for  each  article  of  clothing,  while  four  in 
turn  had  to  taste  the  cup  of  bouillon  or  of  sage  tea  that 
the  King  drank.  The  courtiers  assembled  first  in  the 
ceil-de-bmuf,  or  antechamber,  and  were  admitted  by  re- 
lays according  to  the  kind  of  brevet  that  had  been  be- 
stowed upon  them.  Some  had  the  privilege  of  entering 
without  knocking,  —  or  rather  without  scratching,  for 
the  ceremonial  prescribes  that  at  the  King's  door  one 
shall  always  scratch  softly,  and  never  violently  knock. 

After  the  levee  came  the  daily  visit  to  the  chapel,  for 
that  was  required  of  an  enfant  de  France.  Madame  had 
her  own  almoner,  and  liked  him  especially  because  he 
could   say   mass   in   fifteen   minutes.     In   Versailles,    of 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  71 

course,  she  went  to  the  King's  chapel.  The  one  that 
now  stands  there  was  not  built  until  1710. 

The  distinctions  of  rank  were  observed  in  chapel  as 
well  as  elsewhere.  The  King  and  the  enfants  had  the 
right,  enjoyed  by  no  one  else  in  France  except  the  clergy, 
of  taking  both  the  bread  and  the  wine  at  communion; 
the  enfants  and  the  petits  enfants,  but  no  one  else,  might 
kneel  on  the  square  of  carpet,  the  drap  de  pied,  reserved 
for  the  King.  The  petits  enfants,  and  presumably  Ma- 
dame herself,  had  a  right  to  have  special  "clerks  of  the 
chapel,"  as  they  were  called,  to  hold  tapers  for  them, 
and  to  save  them  the  trouble  of  making  their  own 
responses. 

The  attendance  at  chapel  was  looked  upon  as  a  neces- 
sary evil  by  the  court,  and  Saint-Simon  has  an  amusing 
anecdote  bearing  on  the  subject.  "Brissac,  major  of  the 
body-guards,"  he  writes,  "  played  the  ladies  a  strange 
trick.  He  was  an  upright  man  who  could  not  endure 
deception.  It  vexed  him  to  see  that  all  the  tribunes  of 
the  chapel  were  crowded  in  winter  at  vespers  on  Thurs- 
days and  Sundays,  when  the  King  never  failed  to  be 
present,  and  that  scarcely  one  went  when  it  was  known 
in  good  time  that  he  was  not  coming.  Moreover,  under 
pretext  of  reading  in  their  prayer-books  they  all  had 
little  candles  in  front  of  them  so  that  they  might  be 
seen  and  noticed.  One  evening  when  the  King  was  ex- 
pected at  vespers,   as  they  were   saying  in  chapel    the 


72  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

evening  prayer  that  precedes  vespers  when  that  service 
is  held,  and  all  the  guards  had  been  posted  and  the  ladies 
had  taken  their  places,  the  major  arrives  towards  the 
end  of  the  prayer,  and  appearing  in  the  empty  tribune 
of  the  King,  raises  his  baton  and  cries  aloud:  'Guards 
of  the  King,  retire ;  go  back  to  your  halls,  the  King  will 
not  come !'  The  guards  at  once  obey  —  low  murmurs 
among  the  women,  the  little  candles  go  out,  and  behold 
them  all  departed,  save  the  Duchesse  de  Guiche,  Madame 
de  Dangeau,  and  one  or  two  others  who  remain.  Brissac 
had  posted  brigadiers  at  the  exits  of  the  chapel  to  stop 
the  guards  and  make  them  resume  their  places  so  soon 
as  the  ladies  should  be  out  of  hearing.  The  King  there- 
upon arrives,  is  much  astonished  to  see  that  the  tribunes 
are  not  filled  with  ladies,  and  asks  how  it  happens  that 
no  one  is  there.  As  they  went  out  from  vespers,  Bris- 
sac told  him  what  he  had  done,  not  without  descanting 
on  the  piety  of  the  ladies  of  the  court.  The  King  and 
all  his  suite  laughed  heartily.  The  story  spread  im- 
mediately ;  all  those  women  would  have  liked  to  strangle 
Brissac." 

Madame  objected  to  going  to  chapel  as  much  as  any 
of  the  ladies  could  have  done;  but  she  never  thought 
of  shirking  her  duty.  Unless  prevented  by  illness,  she 
went  daily  to  chapel  for  fifty  years;  it  was  required, 
she  tells  us,  of  an  enfant  de  France.  Her  abjuration  at 
Metz,  though  heralded  throughout  France  as  a  wonderful 


The  Chapel 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  73 

manifestation  of  the  grace  of  God,  had  been  perfunctory 
in  the  extreme.  "At  Metz,"  she  once  writes,  "I  might 
have  said,  with  Madame  de  Chantecroix,  que  de  sacre- 
ments  a  lafois!  for  in  one  day  they  made  me  confess, 
commune,  marry,  and  be  confirmed  —  all  of  which  they 
regard  as  sacraments."  And  again:  "I  do  not  know 
what  they  made  Princess  Elizabeth  say  in  her  abjura- 
tion. As  for  me  they  merely  read  something  to  which 
I  was  to  answer  'yes'  or  'no/  which  I  did  as  I  thought 
best.  Once  or  twice  I  said  'no'  when  they  wished  me 
to  say  'yes' ;  but  they  let  it  pass.  I  had  to  laugh  about 
it  myself."  Although  her  own  coachman  once  de- 
nounced her  as  a  heretic,  she  seems  really  to  have  been 
allowed  great  latitude.  She  writes  in  1709:  "I  said 
recently  to  my  father  confessor,  who  tried  to  convince 
me  of  something  about  the  saints,  'Is  belief  in  it  neces- 
sary to  salvation?'  He  said,  'No/  'Then,'  said  I,  'why 
do  you  wish  to  torment  me  needlessly?'  He  said,  'One 
must  believe  it  to  be  a  good  Catholic'  I  said,  'You  are 
my  third  father  confessor;  two  have  already  found  my 
faith  sufficient,  why  do  you  try  to  force  on  me  some- 
thing new?'  He  said  I  must  think  him  very  silly  not 
to  be  willing  to  believe  as  he  did.  I  said:  'That  is  just 
what  surprises  me,  that  with  your  intelligence  you  can 
believe  such  foolish  things  as  are  only  fit  for  the  com- 
mon people.  The  way  your  nurses  brought  you  up 
must  have  influenced  you  greatly  that  you  believe  fairy 


74  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

stories  about  the  saints  rather  than  the  word  of  God 
which  so  expressly  forbids  your  making  or  bowing  down 
to  graven  images  or  putting  your  trust  in  any  one  save 
His  only  Son.  Had  God  wished  us  to  put  our  trust  in 
the  saints,  He  would  have  told  us  so.  But  you  cannot 
prove  that  He  did,  so  I  shall  not  change  my  devotions. 
It  is  all  right  for  those  who  know  no  better;  but  I  who 
do  shall  not  allow  myself  to  be  put  upon.'  People  came 
in  and  disturbed  our  conversation;  so  it  stopped  there." 
She  tells  us  elsewhere  of  this  father  confessor  that  he 
has  a  "  faith  like  an  old  nun,"  but  that  in  spite  of  many 
a  dispute  they  remain  good  friends,  "for  outside  of 
religion  he  is  the  best  and  most  honest  man  in  the  world 
...  he  understands  chaff  and  is  not  easily  angry." 

She  writes  on  another  occasion:  "My  father  con- 
fessor and  I  often  have  great  disputes,  but  I  don't  let 
him  get  the  better  of  me.  What  I  can't  endure  is 
that  he  expects  the  Protestants  to  be  damned,  and  I 
maintain  to  him  that  that  is  only  monkish  twaddle 
and  quibbling,  and  that  all  true  Christians,  whether 
Catholic,  Lutheran,  or  reformed,  are  all  of  one  faith  if 
they  love  God,  do  not  harm  their  neighbor,  and  concern 
themselves  with  good  works  which  are  the  proper  fruits 
of  faith.  I  tell  him  that  his  opinion  will  never  save  or 
damn  any  one ;  and  that,  whatever  he  may  say,  I  shall 
never  think  differently.  So  your  Grace  sees  that  I  often 
dispute  the  harder  for  all  the  tedium  the  Latin  blaring 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  75 

causes  me.     To  save  my  life  I  cannot  endure  such  priestly 
nonsense." 

In  another  connection  she  says  of  the  priests,  "I 
know  the  vermin  only  too  well."  "Vespers,  sermon,  and 
mass  may  be  good  for  the  other  world,"  she  once  writes, 
"but  they  are  bitterly  wearisome  in  this;"  and  she 
declares  that  she  hates  "to  hear  a  fellow  yelling  in  the 
pulpit  whom  one  may  not  even  interrupt." 

She  had  one  refuge,  sleep;  and  she  slept  even  when 
she  sat  next  to  the  King.  "His  Majesty  nudges  me 
with  his  elbow  and  wakes  me  up,"  she  writes,  "so  that  I 
can  neither  get  wholly  to  sleep  nor  keep  wholly  awake, 
and  that  makes  my  head  ache."  But  a  month  later 
she  writes:    "His  Majesty  lets  me  sleep  in  sermon  now." 

She,  of  course,  does  not  like  to  have  the  priest  come 
down  hard  with  his  fist  on  the  edge  of  the  pulpit,  though 
occasionally  she  rises  superior  to  it.  "We  have  just 
come  from  church,"  she  writes;  "the  preacher  is  said 
to  have  thundered  the  whole  time  and  to  have  brought 
his  fist  down  hard  twice;  but  a  sweet  slumber  hindered 
me  from  hearing  it." 

She  has  special  aversions  among  the  priests:  "The 
Bible,"  she  once  writes,  "speaks  in  such  flowery  and 
figurative  language  that  one  can  never  know  truth  from 
metaphor.  But  when  I  hear  our  King's  long-eared 
father  confessor  talk  [she  means  Pere  la  Chaise]  I  don't 
consider  it  so  impossible  that  Balaam's  ass  spoke." 


76  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

All  this  is  most  remarkable  when  we  think  of  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  banished  from  France  for  their 
beliefs  and  of  the  incredible  cruelty  and  severity.  But 
the  King  had  promised  in  Madame's  marriage  contract 
not  to  coerce  her  in  religious  matters.  She  tells  us  that 
once,  indeed,  he  sent  for  her  and  said  to  her  severely : 
"How  is  this,  Madame,  I  hear  your  son  thinks  of  taking 
a  Jansenist  into  his  service."  "Oh,  no,"  she  replied, 
"I  can  assure  you,  sir,  he  is  no  Jansenist,  and  I  even  doubt 
if  he  believes  in  God."  "Oh,  well,"  said  the  King,  "if 
that  is  the  case,  and  you  are  sure  he  is  no  Jansenist, 
your  son  may  take  him." 

After  chapel  came  dinner.  The  King  ate  either  en 
petit  convert  —  that  is,  alone  while  the  courtiers  stood 
round  him — or  en  grand  convert — which  latter  ceremony 
interests  us  particularly,  for  in  it  Madame  always  played 
her  part  when  she  was  in  Versailles.  The  preparations 
for  it  were  as  elaborate  as  those  for  a  grand  mass:  "The 
usher  of  the  hall,"  says  the  ceremonial,  "having  received 
the  order  for  the  King's  convert,  goes  to  the  hall  of  the 
body-guards,  knocks  on  the  door  with  the  wand  which  is 
the  distinctive  mark  of  his  office,  and  says  aloud,  'Sirs, 
to  the  King's  convert  V  Then,  accompanied  by  a  guard, 
he  goes  to  the  gobelet.  Then  the  chef  du  gobelet  brings 
the  nef,  the  other  officers  bring  the  rest  of  the  convert, 
the  body-guard  marching  near  the  nef,  while  the  usher 
of  the  hall,  carrying  the  two  table-cloths,  is  at  the  head, 


< 
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Q 

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O 

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O 

fc 
O 
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H 


ETIQUETTE   AND  PREROGATIVES  77 

wand  in  hand.  In  the  evening  he  holds  also  a  torch." 
"This  nef"  the  ceremonial  explains,  "is  a  piece  of  jewel- 
ler's work,  ordinarily  of  silver  gilt,  made  in  the  form  of 
a  dismasted  ship.  Tradition  has  it  that  this  was  a  gift 
made  to  one  of  our  kings  in  the  sixteenth  century  by 
the  city  of  Paris,  of  which  the  arms  are  a  ship.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  it  is  in  this  nef  that  are  enclosed,  be- 
tween scented  cushions,  the  napkins  which  are  to  be 
presented  to  the  King  during  the  repast.  When  the 
King  is  pleased  to  dine  with  full  ceremony,  it  is  placed 
on  one  end  of  his  Majesty's  table,  as  will  be  explained 
hereafter.  On  other  days  it  is  placed  on  the  serving 
table.  But  wherever  it  be  placed,  all  persons  who  pass 
in  front  of  it,  even  the  princesses,  are  bound  to  salute  it, 
just  as  they  are  bound  to  salute  the  King's  bed  when 
they  pass  through  his  room.  ..."  The  chef  du  gobelet 
tastes  the  bread  and  the  salt;  "he  touches  also  by  way 
of  precaution  the  napkins,  which  are  in  the  nef,  and  the 
spoon,  the  fork,  the  knife,  and  the  tooth-picks  of  his 
Majesty,  which  are  on  the  cadenas."  The  cadenas  is  a 
gold  box  specially  pertaining  to  the  King. 

Louis  himself  passed  this  regulation  regarding  the  serv- 
ing of  the  meat:  "His  Majesty's  meat  shall  be  served  in 
this  order,  —  two  guards  shall  march  first,  then  the  usher 
of  the  hall,  the  maitre  d'hotel  with  his  baton,  the  gentleman 
in  waiting  of  the  pantry,  the  comptroller  general,  the 
comptroller  clerk  of  the  Office,  and  others  who  shall  carry 


78  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

the  meat,  the  equerry  of  the  kitchen,  and  the  guardian 
of  the  gold  and  silver  plate,  and  behind  them  two  other 
guards  of  his  Majesty  who  shall  let  no  one  approach  the 
meat." 

Arrived  at  the  table,  the  maitre  d'hotel  makes  his  bow 
to  the  nef,  and  the  food  has  to  be  tasted  again  for  fear  of 
poison;  three  guards  meanwhile  have  remained  at  the 
serving  table  to  see  that  nothing  is  tampered  with. 

Probably  no  man  that  ever  lived  in  this  world  was  less 
alone  than  Louis  XIV.  At  Versailles  at  least  he  had  not 
a  single  moment  of  the  night  or  of  the  day  entirely  to 
himself.  In  addition  to  those  who  were  privileged  to  be 
at  his  rising,  at  his  going  to  bed,  and  at  the  intermediate 
changing  of  the  boots  as  well  as  at  the  meals,  there  were 
several  persons  whose  duty  it  was  never  to  let  him  out  of 
their  sight.  There  was  the  porte-manteau  who  was  always 
at  hand  to  bring  cloak,  sword  or  hat,  muff,  cane  or  gloves, 
cravat  or  handkerchief.  If  the  King  played  tennis,  the 
porte-manteau  had  to  hold  the  balls,  and  afterwards, 
at  his  own  expense  (he  had  perquisites  which  compen- 
sated), to  give  a  dinner  to  the  master  of  the  tennis-court 
and  to  all  the  officers  of  the  wardrobe  or  the  bedchamber 
who  had  done  duty  at  the  game. 

The  ceremonial  tells  us  further  of  the  respective  duties 
of  the  captain  of  the  French  body-guards  and  the  captain 
of  the  "Hundred  Swiss":  "The  captain  of  the  French 
body-guards  marches  behind  the  King,  so  as  always  to 


ETIQUETTE   AND  PREROGATIVES  79 

have  his  eye  on  the  person  of  the  King,  and  the  captain 
of  the  Hundred  Swiss  marches  in  front,  so  that  in  both 
directions  they  cover  the  person  of  his  Majesty.  .  .  . 
The  captain  of  the  guards  who  is  en  quartier  never  quits 
the  King  from  the  time  he  rises  and  leaves  his  chamber  to 
the  time  when  he  reenters  it  to  go  to  bed."  He  " stands 
and  walks  always  directly  after  the  King  and  next  to  his 
person  wherever  he  is  outside  of  his  chamber:  at  table, 
on  horseback,  in  his  chair,  his  coach,  and  everywhere  else, 
no  one  whatever  being  allowed  to  place  himself,  or  to 
pass,  between  him  and  the  King.  At  the  King's  dinner 
and  supper  the  captain  of  the  guards  en  quartier  is  always 
behind  his  Majesty's  arm-chair." 

Madame,  too,  had  her  captain  of  the  guards.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  she  was  in  any  way  pursued  as  the 
King  was,  but  she  was  doubtless  well  protected. 

After  meals  Madame  was  handed  a  napkin,  just  as  the 
King  was,  by  some  great  personage.  The  napkin  was 
moistened  at  one  end,  and  she  always  speaks  of  the  per- 
formance as  " washing."  Madame,  like  Monsieur,  was 
always  very  punctilious  about  these  ceremonies.  Saint- 
Simon  calls  her  "  small  in  the  extreme  where  it  was  a 
matter  of  exacting  her  due"  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  no  one  could  possibly  have  been  smaller  in  that 
respect  than  Saint-Simon  himself. 

At  the  wedding  of  her  step-daughter,  which  took  place 
at  Fontainebleau  in  1679,  there  was  a  question  as  to  who 


80  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

should  carry  Madame's  train.  It  was  more  honorable, 
it  seems,  to  have  it  carried  by  a  lady  than  by  a  man,  and 
the  contention  was  that  at  the  marriage  of  Charles  IX 
the  trains  of  his  sisters  had  been  carried  in  that  way. 
The  King  consulted  Sainctot,  the  master  of  ceremonies, 
who  told  him  that  there  was  some  doubt  about  the  matter. 
"But  the  King,"  writes  Sainctot  himself,  "wishing  to 
oblige  Monsieur,  told  him  that  if  a  single  case  could  be 
found  where  Dauphinesses  had  had  their  trains  carried  by 
ladies  he  would  gladly  accord  the  same  honor  to  Madame. 
I  alleged  to  him  that  at  the  wedding  of  Madame  Claude 
de  France  in  1552  Madame  de  Brienne  had  carried  the 
train  of  the  Dauphiness.  So  the  matter  was  decided  as 
Monsieur  desired." 

During  this  same  wedding  ceremony  the  king  at  arms 
and  the  heralds  had  to  summon  Monsieur  to  take  his 
place  near  the  altar  —  by  a  bow  or  salutation ;  but 
they  did  this  out  of  sight  of  the  King.  "Monsieur  and 
Madame,"  writes  Sainctot,  "had  claimed  that  the  salute 
should  be  formal,  or  in  other  words  from  the  same  place 
from  which  the  King  was  saluted.  The  King  paid  no 
heed  to  this  pretension,  which  had  already  been  formu- 
lated in  vain  at  the  creation  of  Knights  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  1662." 

There  were  other  fine  points  decided  at  this  wedding. 
The  King  signed  as  tres  haut,  tres  puissant,  et  tres  excellent, 
Monsieur  was  tres  haut  et  tres  puissant,  the  King's  bastards 


as 

< 

a 
a. 

O 

« 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  81 

tres  hauts  et  puissants,  and  the  foreign  princes,  as  they 
were  called  [the  Lorraines,  etc.],  merely  hauts  et  puissants. 
When  the  moment  came  for  signing,  the  enfants  de  France 
and  the  petits  enfants  had  the  pen  handed  them  by  great 
personages ;  but  the  princes  of  the  blood  had  to  take  the 
pen  themselves  from  the  cornucopia.  Two  of  them, 
the  Prince  of  Conde  and  the  Due  de  Bourbon,  had  stayed 
away  from  the  wedding  because,  they  claimed,  the  pen 
should  be  handed  to  them  —  and  by  the  same  person, 
the  secretary  of  state,  whose  duty  it  was  to  hand  it  to  the 
King's  granddaughters.  When  kneeling  in  chapel  during 
the  ceremony,  Monsieur's  second  daughter  as  well  as 
the  grande  Mademoiselle  and  her  two  sisters  found  them- 
selves obliged  to  kneel  on  the  King's  drap  de  pied  in  such 
a  way  that  their  feet  were  entirely  outside.  But  Sainctot, 
writing  for  ages  to  come,  declares,  "That  is  the  place 
where  their  feet  ought  to  be,  and  that  is  what  they  had 
hitherto  not  at  all  observed." 

The  wedding  procession  itself  must  have  been  one  of 
the  most  magnificent  sights  imaginable  —  especially  to 
an  age  that  had  not  yet  been  corrupted  by  the  tawdry 
gorgeousness  of  the  theatre.  First  came  heralds,  then 
Knights  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  their  velvet  and  ermine 
robes,  then  guards,  drummers,  trumpeters,  and  others, 
and  then  the  King.  Then  came  the  Queen  in  a  dress 
embroidered  with  gold  and  silver  and  a  mantle  of  Span- 
ish  point   lace,  in    length,  as    we    have    said,  twenty- 


82  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

seven  feet  and  bordered  with  deep  silver  lace.  .  .  .  Ma- 
demoiselle, the  bride,  was  clad  a  la  royale.  She  wore  on 
her  head  a  crown  of  gold  enriched  with  diamonds  and 
closed  by  four  quarter  circles  with  the  fleurons  of  Spain. 
Her  mantle  was  of  violet  velvet  lined  with  ermine 
three  inches  deep  and  with  three  rows  of  golden  fleurs- 
de-lis.  The  train  was  eighteen  feet  long.  Four  dozen 
fleurs-de-lis  were  scattered  about  the  extremity  of  the 
train.  "But,"  says  the  master  of  ceremonies,  "the  King 
objected  to  these  four  dozen  fleurs-de-lis  and  ordered 
me  to  remark  in  my  registers  that  it  had  been  done  con- 
trary to  his  intention." 

Louis  took  everything  concerning  this  Spanish  wedding 
with  the  utmost  seriousness.  On  the  day  following  the 
ceremony  he  visited  the  new  Queen  and  sat  in  an  arm- 
chair between  her  and  his  own  Queen.  Suddenly,  finding 
that  it  was  late,  he  said:  "Madame,  you  are  the  Catholic 
Queen  and  I  am  the  most  Christian  King.  I  do  not  think 
we  ought  to  miss  the  mass.  We  will  go  to  chapel  when 
you  are  ready." 

At  the  marriage  of  Madame's  second  step-daughter,  in 
1684,  —  she  married  a  Duke  of  Savoy  and  later  became 
Queen  of  Sicily,  —  the  court  was  in  mourning  for  the 
French  Queen,  so  the  gown  for  the  betrothal  was  of  black 
cloth,  but  weighted  down  with  pearls  and  diamonds. 
At  the  wedding  itself  she  wore  silver  brocade  with  bouton- 
nieres  of  diamonds;  while  the  Due  du  Maine,  who  stood 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  83 

proxy  for  the  husband,  was  in  "  breeches,  doublet,  and 
mantle  of  silk  material  covered  with  lace  and  enriched 
with  diamonds." 

Madame,  like  the  King,  received  ambassadors.  Her 
coach  went  to  meet  them  on  their  arrival,  and  the  officers 
of  her  household  went  to  pay  their  respects.  But  the 
ambassador  was  not  obliged  to  descend  so  many  steps 
to  greet  them  as  he  did  in  the  case  of  the  King's  officers ; 
nor,  after  seeing  them  to  their  coaches,  was  he  obliged 
to  wait  until  the  coaches  drove  off. 

On  the  day  of  the  audience  Madame  would  await  the 
ambassador  in  an  arm-chair,  with  the  duchesses  sitting 
on  tabourets  around  her,  and  her  ladies  standing.  As 
the  ambassador  approached  he  made  three  low  bows. 
Madame  rose  and  remained  standing  throughout  the 
audience.  The  ambassador  had  a  right  to  keep  his  hat 
on  in  her  presence,  but  it  was  a  right  which  politeness 
forbade  his  using.  On  retiring  he  made  three  more  bows 
and  backed  out  the  length  of  the  room. 

If  it  was  merely  an  envoy  and  not  an  ambassador, 
Madame  remained  seated,  making  only  a  slight  inclina- 
tion of  the  head  when  he  came  and  when  he  went.  We 
have  a  speech  that  a  Siamese  ambassador  made  to  Madame 
when  having  his  farewell  audience  in  1686.  It  shows 
what  an  important  person  he,  at  least,  considered  her. 
"  Very  great  Princess,"  he  began,  "our  sojourn  in  France 
has  caused  us  even  to  increase  our  original  high  esteem 


84  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

for  all  the  great  qualities  that  are  admired  in  you.  It  is 
no  little  consolation  to  us  that  our  long  journey  to  Europe 
and  our  return  to  Asia  may  be  of  service  to  your  glory  by 
giving  us  occasion  to  spread  your  name  further  and 
further,  even  to  the  remotest  kingdoms.  We  shall  an- 
nounce everywhere  in  our  own  what  we  know  of  your 
greatness  and  of  the  striking  merit  that  distinguishes  you ; 
and  soon  you  shall  hold  the  same  place  in  the  esteem  of 
the  King,  our  master,  that  you  hold  here  in  the  mind 
and  heart  of  Louis  the  Great." 

One  may  consider  this  language  exaggerated,  but  it  did 
not  so  greatly  differ  from  what  Madame  was  accustomed 
to  hear  from  those  around  her.  Take,  as  an  example, 
this  letter  from  one  of  her  ladies,  the  Marquise  d'Alluye, 
who  was  lying  on  her  death-bed:  "I  am  dying,  divine 
Princess.  The  fever  that  attacked  me  yesterday  has  so 
weakened  me  that  Father  Gaillard  has  ordered  me  to 
receive  the  last  unction.  Believe  me,  my  Princess,  so 
long  as  a  moment  of  life  wards  off  the  misfortune  of 
forever  being  deprived  of  your  dear  presence,  it  will 
console  me  for  everything.  At  least  grant  me  a  moment 
in  your  -precious  recollections.  If  the  dead  feel  anything, 
my  joy  will  be  perfect." 

The  doings  of  this  Siamese  embassy  of  1686  are  alto- 
gether interesting.  It  was  a  very  pompous  mission  in- 
deed. There  were  three  ambassadors,  eight  mandarins, 
and  twenty  domestics.     "The  first  act  of  the  first  am- 


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ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  85 

bassador,"  writes  Sainctot,  in  his  account,  "was  to  place 
the  letter  of  his  royal  master  at  the  bedside  in  the  room 
of  state  in  a  machine  which  they  call  in  their  language 
mordoc  praUnan,  in  ours  the  lieu  royal.  Each  day  all  the 
ambassadors  placed  fresh  flowers  above  the  King's  let- 
ter, and  as  often  as  they  passed  the  lieu  royal,  they  made 
profound  bows.  This  mark  of  respect  need  not  seem 
strange.  In  my  youth  [he  is  writing  about  1730]  all  the 
old  courtiers  saluted  the  King's  bed  when  they  entered 
his  chamber,  and  also  the  nef.  Some  of  the  ladies  of  the 
old  court  still  courtesy  to  it."  At  the  audience  with  the 
King  the  machine  du  lieu  royal  was  brought  to  the  palace 
and  wheeled  into  the  hall  of  guards.  The  first  ambas- 
sador, Sainctot  tells  us,  took  from  it  a  gold  box  in  which 
the  letter  of  the  King  of  Siam  was  enclosed.  He  gave  it 
to  a  mandarin  to  carry  on  a  gold  saucer,  making  him  walk 
in  front  of  him.  Before  the  throne  the  mandarins  pros- 
trated themselves  in  the  dust,  and  "  they  would  have  held 
their  faces  to  the  ground  the  whole  time,  had  not  the  King 
given  them  permission  to  look  at  him.  They  had  come 
too  far,  he  said,  not  to  permit  him  to  see  them." 

When  an  ambassadress  visited  Madame,  the  latter's 
maid  of  honor  went  to  the  middle  of  the  antechamber 
to  meet  her,  kissed  her,  and  taking  her  left  hand,  led  her 
to  Madame.  The  latter  rose  and  remained  standing  near 
her  arm-chair.  The  ambassadress  and  the  maid  of  honor 
made    courtesies;    at    the   third   one    the   ambassadress 


86  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

bent  down  and  kissed  the  hem  of  Madame's  robe.  The 
latter  then  kissed  the  ambassadress  and  offered  her  a 
tabouret. 

This  necessity  of  kissing  the  hem  of  the  garment,  which 
applied  to  all  women  presented  to  the  Queen,  the  Dau- 
phiness,  or  Madame,  was  one  of  those  most  often  disputed. 
When  Madame's  Aunt  Sophia  visited  the  court,  she  was 
determined  not  to  kiss  the  Queen's  robe  because  it  had 
not  been  required  of  her  by  the  Empress.  "The  Queen 
turned  towards  me/'  she  writes,  "and  .  .  .  took  her 
robe  with  her  hand  to  present  it  to  me.  But  I  was  not 
thirsting  for  it  and  contented  myself  with  making  her 
a  deep  courtesy.  Monsieur,  who  had  seen  the  Queen's 
gesture,  laughed  heartily,  and  remarked  that  she  did  the 
same  to  his  children,  and  that  the  little  Due  de  Chartres 
had  said:  'Do  you  think  I  kiss  her  robe?  I  kiss  my 
own  hand.'" 

The  reason  for  disregarding  precedents  established  by 
the  Empress  is  explained  in  the  ceremonial:  "It  is  said 
that  the  King  of  the  Romans  or  Emperor  is  obliged  in 
certain  cases  to  answer  to  the  Count  Palatine,  and  that  the 
Count  may  not  exercise  this  jurisdiction  save  in  a  diet  or 
imperial  court  at  which  the  Emperor  or  King  of  the  Ro- 
mans is  personally  present.  This  article  detracts  from 
the  dignity  of  the  Emperor."  In  the  same  way  Electors 
are  looked  down  upon  by  the  court  of  France  because, 
by  the  Golden  Bull:  "Electors  can  be  deposed  and  de- 


ETIQUETTE   AND   PREROGATIVES  87 

prived  of  their  fiefs  and  dignities  in  case  they  contravene 
the  constitutions  of  the  Empire.  This  article  takes  away 
a  great  deal  from  the  sovereignty  of  the  Electors." 

When  Madame  passed  through  a  double  door,  it  was 
prescribed  that  both  sides  should  be  opened  for  her ;  also 
that,  at  Versailles,  no  lady  should  appear  before  her  except 
in  grand  habit,  which  seems  to  have  meant  any  dress  with 
a  train.  She,  in  turn,  unless  in  hunting  costume,  always 
appeared  in  grand  habit  before  the  King.  When  she 
danced  at  a  ball,  every  one  else  had  to  rise.  When  she 
walked  through  the  palace,  she  was  preceded  by  torch- 
bearers  and  followed  by  her  ladies. 

In  Madame's  presence  no  men  but  cardinals  and 
princes  (including,  however,  the  King's  legitimatized 
sons)  might  sit.  Women  of  rank  might  have  a  chair 
with  a  back  or  a  stool,  but  never  an  arm-chair.  Duch- 
esses were  given  this  privilege  of  sitting  —  the  privilege 
of  the  tabouret,  it  was  called  —  by  brevet  of  the  King. 
Chancellors'  wives  were  in  the  unfortunate  position  of 
having  the  tabouret  only  in  the  morning.  In  the  after- 
noon they  had  to  stand. 

Madame,  as  I  said,  insisted  on  her  rights  with  the  ut- 
most vehemence.  " There  is  not  a  single  ' apartment,"1 
she  writes  in  1694,  "at  which  I  do  not  have  to  make 
people  stand  up  who  are  sitting  down  in  my  presence, 
though  they  look  me  straight  in  the  face.  And  the  men 
are  worse  than  the  women.     Here  they  do  not  know  what 


88  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

respect  means  —  they  know  the  word,  but  not  the  thing 
itself  at  all." 

But  she  had  subterfuges  for  those  whom  she  loved  or 
specially  wished  to  favor:  when  her  half-brother  came 
to  visit  her,  unable  to  offer  him  either  a  chair  or  a  stool, 
she  piled  the  cushions  against  her  dressing  table  and  let 
him  stay  there  until  the  small  hours  of  the  morning ;  and 
many  a  time  to  spare  her  lady  visitors  she  made  them 
pretend  to  play  cards  or  do  some  fancy  work  where  sitting 
was  a  necessity ;  or  she  met  them  in  a  nunnery  where,  out 
of  respect  for  the  sacredness  of  the  place,  she,  as  well  as 
they,  was  obliged  to  stand. 


Louis  XIV  tkkading  on  His  Enkmiks 


CHAPTER  IV 

Madame's  Associates 


It  is  time  to  speak  more  particularly  of  some  of  the  chief 
personages  with  whom  Madame  came  in  contact.  The 
Queen,  Marie  Therese,  a  Spanish  infanta,  was  a  perfect 
nonentity.  Madame  writes  of  her  later:  "  Our  Queen  was 
excessively  ignorant,  but  the  kindest  and  most  virtuous 
woman  in  the  world.  She  had  a  certain  greatness  in  her 
manner  and  knew  how  to  hold  court  extremely  well. 
She  believed  everything  the  King  told  her,  good  or  bad. 
Her  teeth  were  very  ugly,  being  black  and  broken.  This, 
it  was  said,  came  from  her  being  in  the  habit  of  eating 
chocolate.  She  also  frequently  ate  garlic.  She  was 
short  and  fat,  and  her  skin  was  very  white.  When  she 
was  not  walking  or  dancing,  she  seemed  much  taller. 
She  ate  frequently  and  took  a  long  time;  but  her  food 
was  always  cut  in  pieces  small  enough  for  a  canary  bird. 
She  could  not  forget  her  country,  and  her  manners  were 

89 


90  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

always  remarkably  Spanish.  She  was  very  fond  of  cards, 
playing  basset,  reversi,  ombre,  and  occasionally  primero ; 
but  she  never  won,  because  she  did  not  know  how  to  play." 
It  may  be  added  in  this  connection  that  one  evening  after 
she  had  sacrificed  60,000  francs  the  King,  who  was  always 
the  soul  of  courtesy  to  her,  could  not  refrain  from  asking 
how  much,  at  that  rate,  her  losses  were  going  to  amount 
to  in  the  course  of  the  year.  Madame  continues:  "She 
had  such  an  affection  for  the  King  that  she  used  to  watch 
his  eyes  to  do  whatever  might  be  agreeable  to  him;  if 
he  merely  looked  kindly  at  her,  she  was  happy  for  the  rest 
of  the  day." 

This  description  of  the  Queen  corresponds  with  that 
given  by  Madame's  aunt:  "I  found  that  she  had  an 
extraordinarily  white  skin,  and  that  she  was  much  finer 
looking  near  to  than  at  a  distance.  For  her  figure  was 
not  good.  Her  back  was  too  rounded,  and  her  neck 
too  short,  which  made  her  ungraceful.  Her  lips  were 
bright  red,  but  her  teeth  were  all  black  and  spoiled.  It 
was  always  I  who  had  to  begin  each  topic  of  conversation. 
I  began  by  praising  the  court  of  France  and  told  her  she 
could  have  had  no  trouble  in  accustoming  herself  to  its 
ways.  She  responded  no,  that  she  had  had  no  trouble 
at  all,  because  she  had  been  very  happy  there ;  and  she 
said  to  me  twice,  'The  King  loves  me  so;  I  am  so 
grateful  to  him.'  I  answered  very  properly  that  that 
was  not  surprising,  etc.,  and  made  her  tell  me  how  many 


Phii-jppi  mr.  his 

XlZrlA .  etc  .  Wajta.   oo 


TERESA 

~fr$A'  Rmittats  a;  Attvttyia. 


The  Quken  as  Infanta 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  91 

children  she  had  had.  .  .  .  Towards  evening  I  was  led 
through  a  frightful  crush,  to  see  the  grand  ball.  Be- 
cause of  my  incognito  I  was  placed  behind  the  King  and 
Queen,  next  to  Madame  de  Pomponne.  I  thought  I 
was  witnessing  the  golden  age,  husband  dancing  with 
wife,  brother  with  sister.  But  it  was  a  matter  of  grandeur 
rather  than  of  innocence,  for  each  kept  his  rank,  and 
they  danced  more  from  ceremony  than  from  enjoy- 
ment. .  .  .  The  King  made  the  best  appearance,  with 
which  the  good  Queen,  his  wife,  accorded  very  badly, 
making  a  very  poor  one.  One  would  have  said  that 
when  the  King  danced  with  her,  he  was  ashamed  of  her." 

Madame  has  a  passage  about  the  Queen  that  is  worth 
quoting:  "When  our  Queen  of  blessed  memory  fell  down, 
I  ran  right  away.  She  wore  very  high  shoes,  fell  often, 
and  said  each  time :  'Ah,  je  suis  tombee!  '  I  could  never 
hear  that  without  laughing  and  would  run  hastily  into 
the  other  room." 

The  Queen  died  in  1683.  Madame  writes:  "To  be 
perfectly  contented  is  dangerous  to  life.  I  remember 
that  the  Tuesday  before  the  Queen's  death  the  King  gave 
her  a  fete  at  Versailles  at  a  fountain  called  Enceladus. 
This  Enceladus  is  entirely  surrounded  by  foliage.  There 
dinner  was  eaten  and  tables  were  set  for  playing,  as  in 
the  'apartments.'  There  were  all  kinds  of  music,  a 
collation  in  the  evening,  and  then  we  drove  in  open 
caleches.     It  was  the  finest  weather  in  the  world,  for  it 


92  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

was  the  end  of  July.  When  the  Queen  returned  to  her 
room,  she  said  to  her  favorite,  Madame  de  Vize,  whom 
she  called  Philippa :  '  Philippa,  I  never  in  my  life  had  a 
more  agreeable  fete;  for  I  may  say  that  at  all  the  other 
fetes  the  King  has  given  I  have  had  grounds  for  grievance ; 
but  at  this  one  I  have  had  perfect  contentment.'  On 
Friday,  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  she  was  dead !" 

The  " grounds  for  grievance"  were  always  Madame 
de  la  Valliere,  Madame  de  Ludres,  Madame  de  Montespan, 
Madame  de  Fontanges,  or  some  other  of  the  numerous 
favorites.  Madame  de  la  Valliere  was  still  at  court 
when  Madame  arrived.  Not  until  1674  did  she  renounce 
the  world  and  bury  herself  alive  in  the  strict  order  of 
the  Carmelite  nuns.  But  her  glory  had  already  departed, 
and  she  endured  the  humiliation  of  serving  her  successful 
rival,  Madame  de  Montespan,  as  a  sort  of  handmaid. 
Madame  tells  a  terrible  story  of  the  King's  cruelty  to  his 
former  idol:  "He  used  to  pass  through  La  Valliere's 
chamber  to  go  to  Montespan's, "  she  writes ;  "and  one  day, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  latter,  he  threw  a  little  spaniel 
which  he  had  named  'Malice'  at  the  Duchesse  de  la 
Valliere,  saying,  'There,  Madame,  is  your  companion; 
that's  all.'  " 

Madame  always  considered  Madame  de  la  Valliere  more 
sinned  against  than  sinning,  and  formed  a  great  friend- 
ship with  her,  going  to  visit  her  in  the  nunnery.  Indeed, 
she  was  present  at  the  taking  of  the  veil  and  declares 


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ttil 

MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  93 

that  when  it  came  to  throwing  the  funeral  pall  over  her, 
she,  Madame,  shed  such  bitter  tears  that  she  could  see 
no  more. 

Although  the  soul  of  virtue  herself,  Madame  had  not  the 
least  objection  to  associating  with  women  of  the  other 
kind.  She  writes  late  in  life  to  her  pious  half-sister: 
"The  way  to  associate  with  those  who  are  so  amusing 
but  of  light  conduct  is  to  believe  nothing  and  only  listen 
to  their  conversation.  You  need  not  fear  catching  their 
bad  ways,  especially  at  your  age.  That  is  the  way  I 
manage  it,  dear  Louisa.  I  put  up  with  all  sorts  of  people. 
And  it  is  certain,  too,  that  much  more  evil  is  said  of  people 
than  is  really  true." 

Madame  de  Montespan  was  very  different  from  Madame 
de  la  Valliere.  Of  her  Madame  writes:  "She  was  the 
wickedest  woman  in  the  world.  I  know  of  three  persons 
whom  she  poisoned:  Fontanges,  Fontanges'  little  son, 
and  her  maid,  besides  those  I  do  not  know  about." 
And  again,  "She  was  a  living  devil  in  every  way."  With 
regard  to  this  accusation  against  Madame  de  Montespan, 
it  must  be  said  that  Madame  was  too  prone  to  suspect 
poisonings.  She  believed  that  her  predecessor,  Henrietta 
of  England,  had  been  carried  off  in  that  way,  although 
she  attributed  the  crime  not  to  Monsieur,  but  to  his 
vile  favorites,  the  Marquis  d'Effiat  and  the  Chevalier 
de  Lorraine,  the  latter  of  whom  had  been  exiled  at  the 
first  Madame's  instigation.     On  the  other  hand,  the  reve- 


94  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

lations  of  De  la  Reynie,  chief  of  police,  whose  papers  are 
still  preserved,  compromise  Madame  de  Montespan  in 
the  most  astounding  manner  and  convict  her  of  deal- 
ings with  noted  sorcerers  and  poisoners  whom  she  called 
in  to  give  her  love  potions  to  enable  her  to  retain  the 
love  of  the  King.  In  the  company  of  these  people  she 
went  through  the  obscene  rites  of  the  messe  noire,  and  not 
only  La  Reynie,  but  reputable  modern  historians,  who 
have  found  corroborative  evidence,  believe  that  she  finally 
tried  to  poison  the  King. 

In  the  time  of  the  Montespan's  glory  the  King's  infat- 
uation knew  no  bounds.  For  her  he  gave  the  most 
sumptuous  fetes,  he  showered  gold  upon  her,  and  he 
presented  her  with  a  domain  at  Clagny,  where  she  erected 
a  superb  palace,  reminding  Madame  de  Sevigne  of  Dido 
building  Carthage  or  of  Armide  in  the  midst  of  her  en- 
chantments. She  bore  the  King  seven  children,  who  were 
legitimatized  and  given  rank  next  to  the  princes,  but 
who  were  always  Madame's  abominations.  Louis'  poor 
Queen  would  appeal  to  Madame  de  Montespan  for  favors, 
would  humbly  present  herself  at  Clagny  to  ask  after  the 
health  of  the  children,  and  would  take  the  mother  driving 
when  she  seemed  in  need  of  distraction.  Madame  de 
Montespan  had  a  husband  living  who  objected  very  much 
to  what  Moliere  called  the  partage  avec  Jupiter. 

Madame  de  Maintenon,  the  governess  of  Madame  de 
Montespan's  children  and  her  eventual  supplanter  in  the 


Madame  de  Montespan 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  95 

King's  favor,  was  another  aversion  of  Madame's.  The 
latter's  hatred  was  implacable,  was  horrible.  It  has  been 
ascribed  to  pure  jealousy,  but  that  explanation  is  only 
partial.  The  two  women  were  antipodes  in  every  phase 
of  their  characters :  the  one  cold,  calculating,  and  in- 
triguing and  bigoted  to  the  last  degree ;  the  other  impul- 
sive, warm-hearted,  outspoken,  and  thoroughly  tolerant  in 
religious  matters.  Madame  had  enormous  pride  of  birth ; 
she  looked  upon  Madame  de  Maintenon  as  an  upstart. 
"How  should  the  Rumpumpel  have  learned  to  live 
with  people  of  my  kind?"  she  writes.  "She  has  passed 
her  life  with  people  of  another  kind."  And  again:  "The 
passion  the  husband  has  for  this  woman  [Louis  had 
married  her  secretly  in  1684]  is  something  unheard  of. 
All  Paris  says  that  as  soon  as  peace  is  concluded  [this  was 
in  169G]  the  marriage  will  be  declared  and  the  lady  take 
her  rank.  That,  too,  makes  me  glad  no  longer  to  be  first 
lady,  for  at  least  I  will  follow  something  respectable, 
and  not  be  obliged  to  hand  the  lady  her  chemise  and 
gloves."  The  marriage,  of  course,  was  a  mesalliance,  and 
mesalliances  were  Madame's  betes  noires.  "If  one  marries 
canaille,"  she  once  wrote,  "one  has  to  associate  with  one's 
brother-in-law,  and  unconsciously  assumes  his  base  senti- 
ments." 

Madame's  chief  grievance  was  the  religious  influence 
—  which  no  one  disputes  —  that  Madame  de  Maintenon 
exercised  over  the  King.     "Your  Grace  cannot  possibly 


96  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

imagine/'  she  writes,  "what  a  simple  belief  the  great  man 
has,  just  like  children's  nurses.  It  makes  one  feel  badly 
to  hear  him  speak  of  it.  .  .  .  Before  the  great  man  gave 
himself  over  to  the  '  devout '  he  never  in  his  life  hated  his 
neighbor  as  he  does  now."  Again  she  writes  :  "  She  makes 
the  King  cruel,  which  his  Majesty  is  not  by  nature; .  .  . 
she  makes  him  hard  and  tyrannical  with  no  more  com- 
passion for  anything.  .  .  .  The  old  hag  and  the  Jesuits 
had  persuaded  him  that  if  he  tormented  the  Protestants, 
he  would  atone  before  God  and  man  for  the  scandal  he 
had  caused  through  the  double  adultery  with  the  Montes- 
pan."  To  her  dying  day  Madame  believed  that  the  ter- 
rible misfortunes  which  fell  upon  France  were  due  to  the 
persecutions  that  culminated  in  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  In  the  awful  year  of  1709  she  writes: 
"All  honest  people  saw  very  well  what  would  come  of 
expelling  the  Protestants,  but  too  much  belief  was  put 
in  priests  and  old  women.  That  is  why,  at  this  present 
moment,  everything  here  is  so  happy  and  prosperous!" 

There  was  no  evil  of  which  Madame  did  not  think 
Madame  de  Maintenon  capable.  "There  is  a  rumor 
that  the  Pantocrate  is  betraying  her  husband,"  she  writes 
in  1701,  "and  that  she  takes  money  from  the  Emperor; 
that  would  be  too  good  for  anything  if  it  were  true  .  .  . 
she  takes  money  from  all  sides  here."  Again:  "They 
say,  and  I  believe,  that  every  evening  Madame  de  Mainte- 
non receives  five   or   six  packets  from  the   court  spies 


Madamk.  de  Maintenon 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  97 

in  which  they  give  an  account  of  all  that  goes  on  at  court." 
Once  we  have  this  malicious  hit:  "To  show  your  Grace 
that  I  was  right  in  thinking  that  Jupiter  would  be  having 
Alcmenes  if  they  let  him,  and  did  not  frighten  him  with 
Pluto,  I  must  tell  you  that  there  was  a  very  pretty  woman 
here,  a  cousin  of  the  Marechale  de  la  Motte,  named  Madame 
de  la  Bossiere.  She  stayed  several  days  and  then  returned 
to  Paris.  Then  our  Jupiter  asked,  'Where  is  Madame  de 
la  Bossiere?'  They  answered,  'She  has  gone  back  to 
Paris.'  He  responded,  '  I  am  very  glad  of  it,  for  when 
I  see  her  I  cannot  help  fixing  my  eyes  on  her  the  whole 
time.'     So  you  see  I  was  right." 

Madame's  language  about  Madame  de  Maintenon  could, 
for  the  most  part,  not  be  reproduced  in  polite  society. 
Here,  however,  are  some  mild  specimens:  "She  cannot 
do  more  harm  than  she  has  already  done ;  and  I  hope  she 
will  go  to  hell  for  it,  and  may  God  the  Father,  God  the 
Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost  conduct  her  there !  .  .  . 
I  do  not  believe  that  a  wickeder  devil  can  be  found  in  the 
world  than  she  is,  with  all  her  devoutness  and  hypocrisy. 
I  find  that  she  illustrates  the  old  German  proverb,  'Where 
the  devil  cannot  go  himself  he  sends  an  old  woman.' 

In  1690  Madame  writes:  "Though  they  try  to  vex  me 
in  every  way,  and  the  villainy  and  wicked  offices  of  old 
witches  cause  me  to  be  very  badly  treated  by  the  King, 
I  have  quickly  taken  my  determination,  and  in  order  to 
drive  them  wild,  I  take  great  care  of  my  health.     The  old 


98  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

woman  is  at  least  fifteen  or  twenty  years  older  than  I, 
therefore  I  imagine  that  if  I  have  patience  and  look  after 
my  health,  I  shall  enjoy  the  consolation  of  seeing  her 
go  before  me  into  the  other  world."       Again  in  1692: 

"Though  I  am  no  longer  young  the  old is  older  than  I, 

so  I  hope  for  the  pleasure,  before  my  end,  of  seeing  the 
old  devil  go  to  pieces."  In  1695  she  writes  that  Monsieur 
has  brought  her  news  which  is  almost  too  good  to  be  true : 

"It  is,  namely,  that  the  old is  said  to  have  a  cancer." 

She  imagines  Madame  de  Maintenon  is  merely  pretending, 
however,  so  as  to  hold  her  husband  the  faster. 

In  1700  we  have  this :  "I  had  to  laugh  heartily  at  your 
Grace's  remark  that  the  King  was  not  prevented  by  his 
old  shadow  from  being  in  a  good  humor.  The  influence 
of  this  shadow  is  indeed  great,  and  since  the  King  has  the 
sun  for  his  emblem,  one  may  well  call  the  old  woman  an 
eclipse,  for  she  darkens  this  sun  here  more  than  the  real 
one  was  darkened  last  year.  The  spots  of  the  real  eclipse 
disappear  in  a  few  hours,  but  these  spots  will  last  as  long 
as  the  old  woman  lives."  In  1710  she  writes:  "The 
King  is  more  charmed  than  ever  with  his  old  lady-love 
.  .  .  everything  goes  like  the  old  lady's  figure,  namely, 
crooked  and  criss-cross." 

One  who  shared  in  the  hatred  of  Madame  de  Maintenon 
was  the  Dauphiness,  a  Bavarian  princess  who  was  a  rela- 
tive of  Madame's.  The  wedding  had  taken  place  in  1680, 
much  to  the  chagrin  of  Madame's  Aunt  Sophia,  whose 


The  Dauphin 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  99 

chief  object  in  coming  to  France  in  1679  had  been  to  show 
her  own  daughter  to  the  Dauphin.  The  Dauphiness  was 
not  beautiful,  but  the  King's  special  emissary  to  Bavaria 
had  reported  that  if  his  Majesty  "would  beware  of  his 
first  impressions,  he  would  eventually  be  quite  content." 
Madame  drove  to  Chalons  for  the  wedding  and  had  an 
experience  there  that  made  her  wonder  later  if  marriages 
that  begin  with  laughter  are  always  the  happiest:  "We 
were  all  together  on  a  raised  estrade,"  she  writes,  "and 
the  Cardinal  de  Bouillon  was  about  to  perform  the  service 
a  few  steps  below  us.  The  grande  Mademoiselle's  foot 
slipped;  I  saw  her  coming  and,  being  thin  and  light, 
jumped  down  four  steps  at  once  and  thus  escaped  the 
shock.  Instead  the  grande  Mademoiselle  fell  on  the  car- 
dinal, and  the  cardinal  on  the  Dauphin  and  Dauphiness. 
They  too  would  have  fallen  had  not  the  King  stretched 
out  his  arm  and  held  them  all.  They  fell  just  like  cards." 
The  Dauphiness's  life  was  an  unhappy  one,  and  she  was 
ill  a  great  part  of  the  time.  She  bore  the  Dauphin  three 
children,  all  of  whom  we  shall  meet  again  later :  the  Due 
de  Bourgogne,  the  Due  d'Anjou,  and  the  Due  de  Berry. 

Madame  writes  in  1690:  "The  poor  Dauphiness  is 
again  very  bad ;  they  are  killing  her  through  sadness. 
They  are  trying  their  best  to  do  the  same  for  me,  but  I 
am  a  harder  nut  than  the  Dauphiness,  and  before  the  old 
women  eat  me  up  they  are  likely  to  lose  a  few  teeth." 

For  the  Dauphin  Madame  had  no  great  affection :   his 


100  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

character  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  colorless.  "  Noth- 
ing in  the  world  can  make  him  either  glad  or  sad,"  Ma- 
dame writes;  ".  .  .  he  hates  no  one  and  loves  nothing." 
In  some  respects  he  seems  never  to  have  developed. 
Madame  writes:  "I  cannot  bear  to  have  any  one  touch 
me  from  behind;  it  makes  me  beside  myself  with  anger. 
I  very  nearly  hit  the  Dauphin  one  day,  for  he  had  a  wicked 
trick  of  stealing  up  and  putting  his  clenched  fist  in  the 
chair  just  as  I  was  about  to  sit  down.  I  begged  him 
for  God's  sake  to  leave  off  this  habit,  and  he  did  finally 
leave  me  alone." 

These  grand  personages  of  Versailles  unbent  strangely 
at  times.  Once  the  King  suggested  to  his  daughters  to 
fire  off  little  bombs  in  front  of  Monsieur's  window  and 
rouse  him  from  his  slumbers.  Instead  they  lighted  a  fire 
and  the  smoke  drove  him  from  his  room.  Madame 
writes:  "It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  he 
could  go  back,  and  his  agitated  night  gave  him  a  horrible 
headache  and  made  him  very  angry.  The  King,  when 
he  saw  that  his  daughters  had  exceeded  his  commands 
and  his  intentions,  begged  Monsieur's  pardon  for  himself 
and  for  the  princesses.  The  one  who  really  suffered  most 
by  it  was  Madame  du  Maine,  for  Monsieur,  as  he  passed 
through  her  room,  poured  a  glass  of  water  into  her  bed, 
so  that  she  had  first  to  dry  her  sheets  and  was  unable 
finally  to  get  to  bed  any  earlier  than  Monsieur  himself. 
Monsieur  spoke  very  nicely  about  it  afterwards,  and  said 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  101 

he  would  like  to  be  of  an  age  when  pages'  jokes  amused 
him,  but  that  such,  unfortunately,  was  not  the  case." 

Saint-Simon  sums  up  the  character  of  the  Dauphin  in 
much  the  same  terms  as  Madame:  "A  hunter  without 
pleasure ;  inclined  to  be  voluptuous  but  without  taste ;  once 
a  player  for  high  stakes,  but, — since  he  took  to  building, — 
whistling,  and  tapping  his  snuff-box  with  his  fingers  in 
the  corner  of  the  salon  at  Marly;  opening  his  large  eyes 
on  this  person  and  that,  almost  without  looking  at  them ; 
without  conversation,  without  amusement,  I  might  almost 
say  without  feeling  or  thinking."  He  speaks  of  him  as  an 
" indefinable  prince." 

*»,{.»  v^.  »j*  «.|-  *l* 

#j*  #j*  •'I*  «j»  *y* 

All  had  gone  moderately  well  with  Madame  for  the 
first  ten  years  of  her  stay  in  France.  She  had  borne  her 
husband  three  children,  the  Due  de  Valois,  the  Due  de 
Chartres  (the  future  Regent),  and  the  young  Elizabeth 
Charlotte.  The  Due  de  Valois  died  at  the  age  of  three, 
and  forty  years  later  Madame  writes :  "I  wept  for  my  son 
for  six  whole  months.  I  thought  I  should  go  mad.  No 
one  knows  that  pain  who  has  not  lost  a  child.  It  is 
as  though  some  one  were  tearing  the  very  heart  out  of 
one's  body.  I  shudder  at  it  still."  But  after  ten  years 
there  came  terrible  times  with  Monsieur.  He  really 
was  the  scum  of  the  earth,  a  man  of  horrible  vices  who 
squandered  his  own  and  Madame's  money  on  the  vilest 


102  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD   REGIME 

favorites  —  among  them  the  very  men  who  were  believed 
to  have  poisoned  his  first  wife.  "If  it  was  only  that 
Monsieur  lost  his  money  in  gambling/'  Madame  writes, 
"it  would  not  be  so  bad;  but  that  he  gives  it  away  by 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  francs  and  then  tries  to 
economize  it  on  his  children  and  me  is  not  pleasant  at 
all."  And  again,  —  this  after  Monsieur's  death,  —  "They 
find  that  three  young  fellows  alone  received  a  hundred 
thousand  thalers  a  year  each."  "There  is  no  use  expos- 
tulating with  him,"  she  once  wrote;  "he  says  openly 
that  he  is  growing  old  and  has  no  time  to  lose.  By  hook 
or  by  crook  he  means  to  be  merry  to  the  end.  Those  who 
outlive  him,  he  says,  must  shift  for  themselves,  that  he 
loves  himself  more  than  wife  or  children." 

Madame  nearly  fell  a  victim  to  an  odious  intrigue 
woven  against  her  by  her  husband's  favorites,  who  saw 
in  her  a  bar  to  his  liberalities.  They  made  her  husband 
believe,  and  tried  to  convince  the  King,  that  she  had  a 
liaison  with  one  of  the  courtiers.  There  were  a  number 
of  persons  in  the  plot,  and  it  ended  in  Monsieur  talking  of 
divorce  and  dismissing  her  favorite  attendants,  and  in 
Madame  going  and  begging  the  King  to  permit  her  to  end 
her  days  in  a  convent.  One  remark  she  was  said  to  have 
made  —  that  they  were  trying  to  poison  her  as  they  had 
poisoned  the  late  Madame  —  added  oil  to  the  flames ; 
but  with  the  King's  help  her  enemies  were  finally  brought 
to  their  knees. 


Heidelberg  Castle  in  RriNS 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  103 

But  Madame's  life,  from  now  on,  became  almost  unbear- 
able, because  the  King,  too,  began  to  turn  against  her  — 
largely,  she  believed,  through  the  influence  of  Madame  de 
Maintenon.  "The  King  is  so  changed  in  everything  that  I 
no  longer  know  him,"  she  writes  in  1685,  "though  I  know 
perfectly  well  whence  it  all  comes.  But  there  is  nothing 
to  be  done."  Louis  finally  struck  Madame  a  most  terrible 
blow  by  his  treatment  of  her  adored  country,  the  Palati- 
nate. Under  pretext  of  claiming  it  as  her  inheritance 
after  her  brother's  death  he  laid  it  waste  with  fire  and 
sword.  Madame  writes  in  September,  1688:  "Our 
Dauphin  has  now  become  a  warrior  and  left  yesterday  for 
the  army  in  order  to  besiege  and  take  Philipsburg.  He 
told  me  that  after  Philipsburg  he  wished  to  take 
Mannheim  and  Frankenthal  and  carry  on  the  war 
in  my  interests.  But  I  answered  him,  'If  you  take  my 
advice,  you  will  not  go,  for  I  confess  I  can  only  have  sor- 
row and  no  joy  at  seeing  my  name  made  use  of  to  ruin 
my  poor  country,'  and  thus  we  bade  each  other  farewell." 

By  the  orders  of  Louvois,  Louis'  minister,  Heidelberg 
castle,  where  Madame  had  passed  the  happiest  days  of 
her  life,  was  deliberately  blown  up  with  gunpowder; 
nothing  remained  intact  in  it  but  the  great  wine-cask, 
even  then  so  famous  that  to  drink  from  it  the  Dauphin 
made  a  special  expedition. 

"What  pains  me  most,"  Madame  writes,  "is  that  they 
used  my  name  to  plunge  the  poor  people  into  the  most  utter 


104  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

despair.  Though  they  kill  me  for  it,  I  cannot  help  bewail- 
ing that  I  am,  so  to  speak,  the  ruin  of  my  fatherland."  And 
she  tells  in  wonderfully  graphic  language  how  she  cannot 
shut  out  the  dreadful  vision  of  her  ancestral  castle  in  ruins, 
how  it  brings  back  the  memory  of  what  it  was  in  her  time 
and  what  it  is  now, — yes,  and  what  she  herself  has  become 
and  how  she  has  failed  in  the  very  object  for  which  she 
allowed  herself  to  be  sold,  as  it  were,  to  France.  "When 
all  the  misfortunes  came  about,"  she  wrote  later,  "I  was 
for  more  than  six  months  in  such  a  state  that  the  moment 
I  closed  my  eyes  to  try  to  sleep  I  saw  the  places  in  flames, 
I  sprang  up  with  horror  and  wept  until  I  choked."  At 
Versailles  they  seem  to  have  been  impatient  of  her  grief 
and  to  have  practically  forced  her  to  play  her  part  as 
before  in  the  ceremonies  and  fetes. 

She  writes  in  1689  :  "  Yesterday  they  told  me  something 
that  touched  me  very  much,  and  I  could  not  listen  to  it 
without  tears,  namely,  that  the  poor  people  in  Mannheim 
had  all  gone  back  and  sought  refuge  in  their  cellars,  and 
that  they  live  there  as  if  they  were  in  houses  —  yes,  that 
they  even  hold  the  market  daily,  as  though  the  town  were 
in  its  former  condition ;  and  that  if  a  Frenchman  comes 
to  Heidelberg  the  poor  people  crowd  round  him  and  ask 
after  me." 

She  had  once  written:  "It  seems  to  me  we  Palatines 
have  this  about  us,  that  we  love  our  country  unto  death 
and  nothing  goes  ahead  of  it.     In  that  respect  we  are 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  105 

like  the  Israelites."  Yet  she  never  wishes  to  go  back: 
"I  wish  Heidelberg  happiness,  blessings,  and  all  that  is 
good,"  she  writes  in  1714;  "but  it  would  kill  me  to  see  it 
again  now."  And  again,  near  the  end  of  her  life:  "I 
have  a  horror  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  a  ruined  castle 
...  all  my  life  I  have  had  a  horror  of  them.  ...  I 
shudder  when  I  think  of  all  that  Monsieur  de  Louvois 
burned.  I  imagine  he  is  burning  finely  for  it  in  the  other 
world.  .  .  .  He  was  horribly  cruel,  had  no  pity  for  any- 
thing." 

**■-"  -■'  *Jf*  ''■  *J** 

^y*  ^i^  ^^  ^^  ^^ 

A  new  element  came  into  Madame's  life,  and  indeed  into 
that  of  the  whole  court  with  the  advent  of  the  fugitive 
King  James,  of  his  wife,  Mary  of  Modena,  and  of  their  little 
son.  William  of  Orange  landed  in  England  on  November 
5,  1688,  and  on  February  13,  1689,  the  crown  was  granted 
to  him  by  act  of  Parliament,  James  and  his  wife  having 
meanwhile  been  allowed  to  escape.  Louis  XIV  was 
attending  mass  when  a  chamberlain  stepped  up  and 
whispered  something  in  his  ear.  He  cried  aloud,  "The 
King  of  England  has  arrived  in  France ;  he  is  at  Bou- 
logne!" This  news  was  so  different  to  that  which  had 
been  expected,  namely,  that  King  James  had  been  killed 
in  battle,  that  an  immense  joy  seized  on  all.  Madame's 
letters  for  this  period  are  unfortunately  lost,  but  Madame 
de  Sdvigne"   gives  interesting  details  of  the  arrival.     It 


106  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

must  be  remembered  that  the  Queen  and  her  son  preceded 
the  King  by  a  day.  Madame  de  Sevigne  writes  on  Janu- 
ary 10:  "Our  King  acts  in  a  manner  almost  divine  with 
regard  to  their  Britannic  majesties ;  for  is  it  not  being  the 
representative  of  the  Almighty,  to  support  a  King  ban- 
ished, betrayed,  and  abandoned?  The  noble  ambition 
of  our  sovereign  is  gratified  by  acting  this  part ;  he  went 
to  meet  the  Queen  with  all  his  household  and  a  hundred 
coaches  and  six.  When  he  perceived  the  Prince  of  Wales' 
carriage,  he  alighted  and  would  not  let  this  little  child,  who 
is  beautiful  as  an  angel,  they  say,  dismount.  He  affec- 
tionately embraced  him.  He  then  ran  to  the  Queen,  who 
was  by  this  time  alighted;  he  saluted  her,  talked  with 
her  for  some  time,  placed  her  at  his  right  hand  in  his 
carriage,  presented  to  her  the  Dauphin  and  Monsieur, 
who  were  also  in  the  carriage,  and  conducted  her  to  St. 
Germain,  where  she  found  everything  prepared  for  her 
like  a  queen,  all  sorts  of  apparel  and  a  rich  casket  con- 
taining six  thousand  louis  d'ors.  The  King  of  England 
was  expected  the  next  day  at  St.  Germain,  where  the  King 
awaited  him.  He  arrived  late  because  he  came  from 
Versailles.  His  Majesty  went  to  the  end  of  the  guard- 
room to  meet  him ;  the  King  of  England  made  an  inclina- 
tion, as  if  to  embrace  his  knees,  but  the  King  prevented 
him  and  embraced  him  three  or  four  times  very  cordially. 
They  talked  together  in  a  low  voice  for  nearly  a  quarter 
of  an  hour.      The  King  presented  to  him  the  Dauphin 


Kino  James  II 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  107 

and  Monsieur,  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the  Cardinal  de 
Bonzi.  He  conducted  him  to  the  apartment  of  the  Queen, 
who  could  scarcely  refrain  from  tears.  After  conversing 
for  a  few  minutes  his  Majesty  led  them  to  the  apartment 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  where  they  again  conversed  for 
some  time,  and  he  then  withdrew,  not  choosing  to  be 
attended  back,  but  saying  to  the  King :  '  This  is  your 
house ;  when  I  come,  you  will  do  the  honours  of  it,  and  I 
will  do  the  honours  of  mine  when  you  come  to  Versailles.' 
The  next  day,  which  was  yesterday,  the  Dauphiness 
went  there  with  all  the  court.  I  do  not  know  how  they 
will  have  managed  about  chairs  for  the  princesses.  They 
had  them  at  the  wedding  of  the  Queen  of  Spain,  and  the 
Queen-mother  of  England  was  treated  as  a  fille  de  France. 
.  .  .  His  Majesty  sent  the  King  of  England  ten  thousand 
louis  d'ors.  The  latter  looks  old  and  worn.  The  Queen 
is  thin,  with  fine  black  eyes  swollen  from  weeping;  a 
fine  complexion  but  rather  pale ;  a  large  mouth,  beautiful 
teeth,  a  fine  figure  and  a  good  share  of  sense.  No  wonder 
that  with  all  these  advantages  she  pleases  every  one." 

Two  days  later  Madame  de  Sevigne  writes  again:  "It 
is  so  extraordinary  to  have  this  court  here  that  it  is  the 
constant  subject  of  conversation.  The  regulation  of  rank 
and  precedence  is  to  be  attended  to,  so  as  to  make  life 
pleasant  for  those  who  are  so  little  likely  to  be  restored. 
The  King  said  this  the  other  day,  adding  that  the  English 
King  was  the  best  man  in  the  world,  that  he  should  hunt 


108  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

with  him,  that  he  should  come  to  Marly  and  Trianon, 
and  that  the  courtiers  should  accustom  themselves  to 
him." 

It  is  interesting  to  see  to  what  questions  of  etiquette 
this  appearance  of  a  new  King  at  court,  and  a  King 
whose  susceptibilities  it  was  desired  to  spare  in  every 
way,  gave  rise.  "The  King  of  England  does  not  give 
his  hand  to  the  Dauphin,"  writes  Madame  de  Sevigne, 
"and  does  not  reconduct  him."  And  again:  "The 
Queen  has  not  kissed  Monsieur,  who  is  offended  at  this. 
She  said  to  the  King :  '  Tell  me  what  you  wish  me  to 
do;  if  you  would  have  me  follow  the  French  fashion,  I 
will  kiss  whom  you  please;  but  it  is  not  the  custom  in 
England  to  kiss  any  one." 

The  excitement  ran  all  through  the  royal  family,  each 
trying  to  adjust  himself  to  the  new  situation.  "The 
Dauphiness  does  not  intend  to  visit  this  Queen,"  writes 
Madame  de  Sevigne;  "she  wants  her  right-hand  seat 
and  chair  of  state,  which  cannot  be;  she  will,  therefore, 
always  be  in  bed  when  the  Queen  visits  her."  The 
princesses  of  the  blood  objected  to  taking  seats  without 
a  back  in  the  Queen's  presence,  but  this  was  arranged  by 
having  the  princesses  make  their  visits  simultaneously 
with  Madame.  "Madame  is  to  have  an  arm-chair  upon 
the  left  hand,"  writes  Madame  de  Sevigne,  "and  the 
princesses  of  the  blood  are  to  visit  with  her;  before  her 
they  have  tabourets  only.     The  duchesses  will   be  on  the 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  109 

same  footing  as  when  in  the  Dauphiness's  presence; 
this  is  settled.  The  King,  having  learned  that  a  King 
of  France  gave  a  Prince  of  Wales  merely  a  chair  on  the 
left  hand,  chooses  that  the  King  of  England  should  treat 
the  Dauphin  in  the  same  manner  and  take  precedence 
over  him.  He  is  to  receive  Monsieur  without  chair  or 
ceremony.  The  Queen  has  kissed  him  after  saying 
what  I  told  you  to  our  sovereign." 

On  January  17  we  have  this  from  Madame  de 
Sevigne:  "The  English  court  is  quite  established  at  St. 
Germain.  They  would  not  accept  more  than  15,000 
livres  a  month,  and  have  regulated  their  court  upon 
that  basis.  The  Queen  is  very  much  liked ;  our  King 
converses  very  pleasantly  with  her;  she  has  good  sense 
without  affectation.  The  King  wished  the  Dauphiness 
to  pay  her  the  first  visit,  but  the  Dauphiness  was  always 
so  conveniently  indisposed  that  this  Queen  paid  her  a 
visit  three  days  ago,  admirably  dressed;  a  black  velvet 
robe,  a  beautiful  petticoat,  her  hair  tastefully  disposed, 
a  figure  like  the  Princess  de  Conti's,  and  great  dignity  of 
manner.  The  King  received  her  as  she  alighted;  she 
went  first  into  his  apartment  where  she  had  a  chair 
lower  than  the  King's.  Here  she  remained  for  half  an 
hour;  he  then  conducted  her  to  the  Dauphiness,  who 
was  up  and  about.  This  occasioned  a  little  surprise. 
The  Queen  said  to  her,  'I  expected,  Madame,  to  have 
found  you  in  bed/     'I  wished  to  rise,  Madame/  replied 


110  A  LADY  OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

the  Dauphiness,  Ho  receive  the  honor  your  Majesty 
does  me.'  The  King  then  left  them,  as  the  Dauphiness 
has  no  chair  in  his  presence.  The  Queen  took  her  seat 
with  the  Dauphiness  on  her  right  hand  and  Madame 
on  her  left,  and  there  were  three  other  chairs  for  the 
young  princes.  They  conversed  together  for  upwards  of 
half  an  hour.  Several  duchesses  were  present,  and  the 
court  was  very  numerous.  At  length  she  retired;  the 
King  had  given  orders  to  be  informed  of  it,  and  handed 
her  back  to  her  carriage.  I  do  not  know  how  far  the 
Dauphiness  went  with  her,  but  I  shall  hear.  The  King, 
on  his  return,  highly  praised  the  Queen,  saying:  'This 
is  how  a  queen  ought  to  be,  both  in  person  and  mind, 
holding  her  court  with  dignity.  .  .  .'  Some  of  our 
ladies,  who  tried  to  assume  the  airs  of  princesses,  did 
not  kiss  the  Queen's  robe;  some  of  the  duchesses  tried 
to  avoid  it  too.  But  the  King  was  displeased  at  this, 
and  now  they  pay  her  homage." 

Our  Madame  writes  of  the  Queen  in  1690;  "To  tell 
the  truth  she  is  horribly  proud  and  arrogant,  which  has 
not  helped  her  in  gaining  the  favor  of  the  ladies  here. 
She  was  long  unwilling  to  make  courtesies  to  any  one; 
now  she  makes  little  bobs  which  do  not  yet  suit  our 
ladies." 

Later,  indeed,  Madame  became  quite  devoted  to  the 
Queen,  and,  writing  long  afterwards,  describes  her  as  fol- 
lows:   "The  Queen  was  not  pretty,  but  very  agreeable. 


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MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  111 

She  was  exceptionally  tall — as  tall  as  our  late  King — and 
very  thin,  though  more  so  in  the  body  than  in  the  face. 
The  face  was  rather  long,  but  rather  round,  too.  She 
had  intelligence  in  her  eyes,  which  were  not  ugly,  either. 
She  had  a  straight  nose  and  quite  a  large  mouth,  with 
large  white  teeth  which  remained  white  to  the  end. 
Her  face  was  a  little  sallow,  more  noticeably  so  after  her 
Majesty  had  left  off  rouging.  She  had  a  good  bearing 
and  walked  well,  being  very  proper  in  everything." 

Madame's  feelings  towards  King  James,  too,  varied 
at  different  times.  The  first  verdict  that  we  have  is: 
"When  one  sees  the  good  King  and  speaks  to  him,  one 
feels,  indeed,  very  sorry  for  him ;  he  seems  to  be  good- 
ness itself.  But  one  cannot  be  surprised  that  what  we 
now  witness  should  have  happened  to  him.  ...  If 
one  wishes  to  distinguish  the  two  Kings,  one  can  say 
that  the  Prince  of  Orange  is  'King  in  England,'  while 
ours  is  'King  out  of  England.'"  Later  she  tells  ridicu- 
lous anecdotes  about  James  and  concludes:  "I  am  sorry 
for  him,  yet  I  cannot  help  laughing  when  I  see  him  so 
silly.     He  is  glad  to  be  here  and  is  always  laughing." 

In  February,  1689,  James  set  out  to  regain  his  king- 
dom, and  Louis  XIV,  who  had  given  him  a  whole  army 
with  its  accoutrements  and  millions  of  money,  said  to 
him  at  parting:  "Sir,  it  is  with  grief  I  see  you  depart, 
yet  I  never  wish  to  see  you  again.  But  should  you 
return,  be  assured  you  will  find  me  the  same  as    you 


112  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

leave  me."  After  the  failure  of  the  expedition  and 
James7  return,  Madame  considers  him  callous,  far  too 
easily  amused  with  trifles  and  too  much  absorbed  in 
bishops  and  monks.  She  thinks,  too,  that  if  he  were 
not  so  entirely  under  the  eye  of  the  Queen,  he  might 
behave  less  respectably.  "I  imagine  this  good  Queen 
would  be  happy  to  have  her  lord  never  see  any  ladies 
handsomer  than  myself,"  she  writes. 

Soon  after,  in  October,  1690,  we  have  this:  "Madame 
de  Portsmouth,  whom  we  had  here  a  few  days  ago, 
told  me  the  late  King  [Charles]  used  to  say:  'You 
will  see  that  when  my  brother  is  King,  he  will  lose  his 
kingdom  through  zeal  for  religion  and  his  soul  through 
ugly  women,  for  he  has  not  good  taste  enough  to  love 
pretty  ones.  .  .  .'  If  his  going  to  Rome  would  give  us  a 
good  peace,  I  wish  he  would  soon  betake  himself  there, 
for  I  am  very  tired  of  war.  The  more  one  sees  this  King 
and  the  more  one  hears  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  the 
more  one  excuses  the  Prince  and  sees  that  he  is  worthy 
of  esteem.  .  .  .  Certainly  an  intelligence  like  his  pleases 
me  better  than  a  handsome  face." 

Madame  sends  comic  songs  to  her  aunt  on  the  subject 
of  King  James,  and  is  glad  they  have  diverted  her  Grace. 
The  songs,  she  declares,  do  not  hurt  him  in  France,  and 
he  is  more  in  favor  than  one  would  imagine.  "They 
make  songs  here  about  everything,  and  no  one  can  escape 
them  —  not  even  our  King  himself,  or  his  minister  .  .  . 


MADAME'S   ASSOCIATES  113 

every  one  says  his  opinion  of  them  all  either  in  prose  or 
in  verse.     So  the  King  of  England  must  not  take  it  ill." 

As  she  grows  to  know  King  James  better,  she  changes 
her  opinion  of  him:  "Now  that  I  have  come  to  know 
good  King  James  better,  I  have  grown  quite  fond  of 
him.  He  is  the  best  man  in  the  world.  I  pity  him  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart,  for  he  sighs  sometimes  so  un- 
happily. He  took  me  aside  and  questioned  me  closely 
as  to  whether  it  was  true  that  his  daughter,  the  Prin- 
cess of  Orange,  had  been  so  sad  over  his  misfortunes  that 
she  had  not  wished  to  dance  when  her  Grace  the  Elec- 
tress  of  Brandenburg  was  in  The  Hague,  and  whether 
it  was  true  that  she  had  written  to  your  Grace  that  she 
was  glad  he  had  not  been  killed  in  Ireland.  I  assured 
him  it  was  true,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  this  assurance 
gave  the  poor  unhappy  King  a  little  consolation." 

What  she  criticises  most  in  King  James  is  his  devout- 
ness.  She  would  like  to  see  him  back  upon  his  throne, 
but  declares  that  the  pai  pai,  the  mat  mai  (so  she  mimics 
the  intoning  of  the  priests),  and  all  the  monkishness  is 
more  his  affair  than  reigning:  "I  wish  he  could  come 
to  a  good  arrangement  with  the  Prince  of  Orange,  so 
that  he  could  do  the  praying  for  the  prince,  and  the 
latter  do  the  reigning  for  his  father-in-law;  then  there 
might  be  peace  all  round." 

After  the  failure  of  the  expedition  of  1692,  Madame 
pities   King   James   still    more.     The   latter's   letter   to 


114 


A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 


Louis  declaring  that  he  could  not  endure  the  thought 
of  having  brought  disgrace  on  the  King's  arms  and 
begging  him  to  abandon  him,  brought  tears  to  her  eyes. 
But  she  thinks  that  James  is  the  simplest  man  she  ever 
saw,  and  that  a  child  of  seven  would  not  have  made 
such  mistakes.  She  wishes  he  would  become  a  pilgrim, 
go  to  Rome,  and  see  as  many  Jesuits  and  monks  as  possi- 
ble, leaving  William  in  possession,  and  she  thinks  it 
would  be  a  fine  combination  if  William,  who  is  childless, 
would  adopt  James'  children. 


The  Entrance  to  the  Labyrinth 


CHAPTER  V 
The  King's  Grandsons  and  the  Stuarts 


The  Dauphiness  died  in  1690,  and  Madame  writes 
that  she  has  wept  herself  almost  blind,  "for  I  loved  her 
Grace  very  much;  moreover,  when  I  saw  our  arms 
everywhere  on  the  coffin  and  on  the  black  hangings  in 
the  church,  it  so  recalled  to  me  the  deaths  of  his  Grace 
the  Elector,  of  my  mother,  and  of  my  brother  that  I 
nearly  burst  with  weeping." 

She  is  aghast  at  the  callousness  of  the  rest  of  the  court, 
and  she  places  Louis  before  us  in  a  new  light :  "  Wednes- 
day, after  this  dreadful  ceremony,  we  went  to  Marly; 
there  my  sadness  might  have  left  me,  for  life  went  on 
exactly  as  usual;  all  the  rooms  full  of  card  players,  in 
the  afternoon  the  hunting,  in  the  evening  the  music 
.  .  .  would  God  your  Grace  could  be  as  hard-hearted 
and  love  your  own  as  little  as  the   great  man  his  son 

115 


116  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

and  his  brother.  For  they  grieve  over  nothing,  die  who 
will.  ...  If  they  did  it  from  strength  of  character,  one 
might  praise  and  admire  them ;  but  such  is  not  the  case. 
With  the  spectacle  before  their  eyes  they  are  full  of 
lamentations;  but  the  moment  they  are  out  of  the 
room  they  laugh  and  never  think  of  it  again."  Years 
later  Saint-Simon  tells  us  in  this  connection  that  on 
the  day  after  Monsieur's  death  the  King  sang  prologues 
of  operas  and  asked  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  what 
could  make  her  so  melancholy;  while  the  Due  de  Bour- 
gogne asked  the  Due  de  Montfort  to  play  at  "Brelan." 
"'BrelanP  you  can't  be  thinking  of  it,"  cried  Montfort; 
"Monsieur  is  still  warm!" 

Madame  had  one  trial  at  this  time  which  she  often 
designated  as  the  bitterest  in  her  life.  Already  in  1688 
she  had  written  to  her  aunt  these  lines:  "I  could  not 
neglect  this  good  and  safe  opportunity  of  pouring 
out  my  whole  heart  to  your  Grace  and  telling  you 
all  my  torments,  which  I  cannot  confide  to  the  ordi- 
nary post.  I  must,  then,  confess  to  my  dearest  aunt 
that  for  some  time  I  have  been  far,  far  from  happy, 
though  I  let  it  be  noticed  just  as  little  as  possible.  The 
real  reason  has  been  confided  to  me  why  the  King  treats 
the  Chevalier  de  Lorraine  and  the  Marquis  d'Effiat  so 
well.  It  is  because  they  have  promised  to  persuade 
Monsieur  to  humbly  beg  the  King  to  marry  the  Montes- 
pan's  children  to  mine  —  namely,  my  daughter  to  the 


opmjMujnrojjgiimiyiiijruuimmnntJOtfimunywri™ 


A  Fountain  (The  Moukey  and  the  Chestnuts) 


THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  117 

lame  Due  du  Maine,  and  my  son  to  Mademoiselle  de 
Blois.  In  this  case  the  Maintenon  is  entirely  for  the 
Montespan,  because  it  was  she  who  brought  these  bas- 
tards up,  and  she  loves  the  lame  boy  like  her  own  child. 
Now  think,  your  Grace,  what  my  feelings  must  be  at 
seeing  my  daughter  alone  so  badly  provided  for,  although 
her  sisters  are  so  well  married.  Even  were  not  the  Due 
du  Maine  the  child  of  a  double  adultery,  but  a  rightful 
prince,  I  should  not  want  him  for  a  son-in-law  nor  his 
sister  for  a  daughter-in-law.  He  is  horribly  ugly  and 
lame,  and  has  other  bad  qualities  of  his  own,  is  stingy 
as  the  devil,  and  has  not  a  good  disposition.  His  sister, 
indeed,  has  a  good  disposition,  but  is  dreadfully  delicate, 
and  so  blear-eyed  that  I  believe  she  will  finally  go  blind. 
But  over  and  above  all  this  they  are,  as  I  said  before, 
bastards  from  a  double  adultery  and  children  of  the 
wickedest  and  most  desperate  woman  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Now  I  leave  it  to  your  Grace  to  imagine  how 
pleasing  this  is  to  me.  The  worst  thing  is  that  I  cannot 
speak  out  plainly  to  Monsieur  about  the  matter,  for  he 
has  the  pretty  habit,  when  I  speak  a  word  to  him,  of 
immediately  repeating  it,  with  amplifications,  to  the 
King  and  getting  me  into  a  hundred  difficulties  with 
the  latter.  I  am  therefore  in  dire  need,  and  do  not 
know  where  to  turn  to  avoid  this  calamity.  Meanwhile 
I  cannot  help  torturing  myself  inwardly,  and  every 
time  I  see  these  bastards  my  blood  wells  up.     My  dearly 


118  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

loved  aunt  may  well  imagine  how  it  must  pain  me  to 
see  my  only  son  and  my  only  daughter  the  victims  of 
my  worst  enemies,  who  daily  inflict  and  have  inflicted  on 
me  every  kind  of  evil  —  yes,  even  trying  to  smirch  my 
honor  through  their  false  speeches.  They  say  that 
D'Effiat  has  the  promise  of  a  dukedom,  and  that  the 
Chevalier  is  to  have  a  large  sum  of  money.  ...  I 
shall  probably  be  exiled  on  account  of  this,  for  if  Mon- 
sieur speaks  to  me  seriously  about  it,  I  shall  not  fail  to 
tell  him  what  I  think.  He  will,  then,  as  usual,  retail  it 
to  the  King." 

What  Madame  had  so  dreaded  came  to  pass,  at  least 
in  part,  in  1692.  Monsieur  came  to  her  one  day,  told 
her  that  a  marriage  had  been  arranged  between  their 
son  and  Mademoiselle  de  Blois,  and  hoped  that  she, 
Madame,  would  "not  be  so  base"  as  to  oppose  it.  It 
was  the  wish  of  the  boy  himself,  and  the  King  was  ready 
to  make  brilliant  provision  for  the  pair. 

Madame  was  frantic.  But  she  did  not  dare  to  openly 
oppose  such  a  powerful  combination,  and  in  a  conference 
held  in  the  King's  cabinet  told  him  and  Monsieur  that 
when  they  spoke  to  her  en  maitre  she  felt  bound  to  obey. 
Saint-Simon  relates  that  after  this  interview,  he  saw 
Madame  raging  like  a  lioness ;  that  she  stalked  along  the 
Galerie  des  glaces  handkerchief  in  hand,  weeping  and 
gesticulating  wildly  and  looking  for  all  the  world  like 
Ceres    demanding   Proserpine    back    from   Jupiter.     He 


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THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  119 

further  relates  that  as  her  son  bent  to  kiss  her  hand 
she  drew  it  back  and  gave  him  a  resounding  whack  on 
the  ear;  also  that  when,  after  supper  that  night,  she 
and  the  King  exchanged  the  customary  bows,  hers  was 
a  mere  pirouette  and  that  the  King  as  he  raised  his  head 
found  himself  staring  at  her  retreating  back. 

Madame  begged  her  aunt  not  to  believe  the  stories  of 
her  acting  childishly  in  regard  to  the  marriage.  But 
she  made  no  secret  of  her  horror  of  this  match.  When 
she  learns  that  the  Due  du  Maine  has  taken  a  Bourbon 
princess,  she  writes  that  a  stone  has  fallen  from  her 
heart.  But  in  1695,  she  writes:  "Should  all  the  present 
caresses  be  for  the  purpose  of  handing  over  my  daughter 
to  Stinknase  [the  Comte  de  Toulouse],  I  will  never  in 
my  life  do  it."  And  nearly  a  whole  year  later  she  ex- 
presses the  fear  that  Stinknase  still  has  "our  girl"  in 
view. 

One  cannot  wonder  that  Madame  was  unpopular  with 
the  people  of  the  court,  for  her  bluntness  and  outspoken- 
ness were  something  phenomenal,  as  one  may  judge 
from  a  little  episode  that  occurred  in  January,  1696. 
Madame  at  the  time  was  forty-four  years  old.  A  Cheva- 
lier de  Bouillon  had  been  boasting  that  she  was  in  love 
with  him.  "Last  Monday  when  I  came  to  the  play," 
she  writes,  "I  saw  some  young  people  look  at  me,  laugh 
scornfully,  and  make  signs  to  the  Chevalier.  That  roused 
my    blood.     We    had    been    talking    of    apostrophizing. 


120  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

'There's  one  man  I  mean  to  apostrophize  soon/  I  said 
out  loud  before  the  Dauphin.  'Who?'  he  asked. 
'Chevalier  de  Bouillon/  I  replied;  'I  hear  he  boasts  of 
my  having  an  intense  passion  for  him  about  which  I 
myself  know  nothing.  I  should  like  to  know  by  what 
great  and  beautiful  qualities  he  has  so  charmed  me; 
and  if  he  continues  to  talk  as  if  he  were  so  fascinating, 
I  shall  have  to  beg  the  King  to  remove  this  torch  that 
burns  my  heart  to  ashes.'  "  She  said  it  laughingly,  so 
she  tells  us,  but  the  Dauphin  took  the  matter  up  and 
the  Chevalier's  father  came  to  see  her.  She  writes : 
'"What/  said  Monsieur  de  Bouillon,  'could  make  you 
think  my  son  capable  of  such  impertinence?'  'There 
are  two  reasons/  I  answered,  'one  is  his  insolence  to 
the  Duchess  of  Hanover  .  .  .  the  other  that  he  is  a 
drunkard.  I  saw  him  so  drunk  at  Fontainebleau  that 
in  my  presence,  at  the  hunt,  he  called  you  an  old  fool.' 
.  .  .  There  are  terrible  disputes  at  court  over  this 
matter.  More  than  half  think  I  did  perfectly  right  to 
give  the  young  people  a  scare;  others  think  I  might 
have  done  it  in  a  quieter  way,  and  less  publicly." 

In  this  same  year,  1696,  Madame  lost  her  position  as 
first  lady  in  France,  for  the  Due  de  Bourgogne,  the  King's 
eldest  grandson,  contracted  to  marry  a  Savoy  princess. 
The  little  bride  came  to  France  as  a  hostage,  but  with 
the  contract  of  marriage  already  drawn  up.  She  was 
the   step-granddaughter   of     Madame.      To   make   sure 


The  Duchesse  dk  Bourgognb 


THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  121 

that  she  was  no  smaller  and  no  less  beautiful  than  had 
been  represented,  her  portrait,  together  with  a  ribbon 
indicating  her  height  and  one  of  her  corsages  to  indi- 
cate her  girth,  had  been  sent  ahead  and  approved.  A 
crowd  of  some  twenty  thousand  gathered  at  the  frontier, 
near  the  Pont  de  Beauvoisin,  to  greet  her,  the  King 
having  sent  a  cortege  of  no  less  than  six  hundred  per- 
sons. The  exigencies  of  etiquette  marred  the  joy  of  her 
arrival.  Her  escort  insisted  that  the  French  should  come 
to  the  Savoy  end  of  the  bridge  and  get  her,  the  French  that 
the  Savoyards  should  bring  her  over.  After  many  hours 
of  delay  and  irritation  the  plan  was  adopted  of  placing 
a  coach  in  the  middle  of  the  bridge,  with  the  hind  wheels 
in  Savoy,  the  front  in  France.  The  two  escorts  drew 
up  each  on  its  own  side  of  the  dividing  line.  The  trans- 
fer was  then  effected,  and  a  written  receipt  given  for  the 
little  princess,  as  though  she  had  been  a  bale  of  mer- 
chandise. 

We  have  several  portraits  of  the  Duchesse  de  Bour- 
gogne,  and  Madame's  verbal  description  is  as  vivid  as 
any  portrait.  "I  must  tell  your  Grace,"  she  writes, 
"a  little  about  the  future  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  who 
finally  arrived  at  Fontainebleau  last  Monday.  The  King, 
Monsieur,  and  my  son  received  her  on  Monday  at  Mon- 
targis.  I  awaited  her  in  her  apartment  at  Fontainebleau. 
I  received  her  laughing,  for  I  thought  I  should  laugh 
myself  ill.     There   was   such   a   crowd   and   crush   that 


122  A   LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

they  pushed  poor  Madame  de  Nemours  and  the  Mare- 
chale  de  la  Motte  so  that  both  came  towards  us  back- 
wards the  whole  length  of  the  room,  and  finally  fell  on 
Madame  de  Maintenon.  Had  I  not  held  the  latter  by 
the  arm,  they  would  have  knocked  each  other  down 
like  cards;  it  was  too  comical.  .  .  .  As  to  the  princess," 
Madame  continues,  "her  Grace  is  not  very  tall  for  her 
age,  but  has  a  nice  slim  figure  like  a  perfect  doll.  She 
has  fine  blonde  hair  and  in  great  quantities,  black  eyes 
and  eyebrows  and  very  long  and  beautiful  eyelashes; 
her  skin  is  very  smooth,  but  not  so  very  white;  the 
little  nose  neither  pretty  nor  ugly;  a  large  mouth  and 
thick  lips  —  in  short,  quite  an  Austrian  mouth  and  chin. 
She  walks  well,  has  a  good  bearing,  and  is  graceful  in 
everything  she  does.  She  is  very  serious  for  a  child  of 
her  age  [she  is  eleven],  and  frightfully  politic.  She 
pays  little  attention  to  her  grandfather  and  hardly 
looks  at  my  son  or  me;  but  the  moment  she  sees  Ma- 
dame de  Maintenon  she  smiles  at  her  and  goes  to  her 
with  open  arms.  .  .  .  We  are  all  children  once  more. 
Day  before  yesterday  ...  we  played  blind-man's-buff; 
yesterday  we  played  'how  do  you  like  the  company?' 
It  did  me  good  to  tear  round  a  little." 

We  have  a  letter  that  the  King  wrote  to  Madame  de 
Maintenon  on  his  way  back  with  the  little  princess  from 
Montargis.  He  describes  her  much  as  Madame  has 
done  and  concludes:    "To  talk  frankly  to  you,  as  I  al- 


THE  KING'S   GRANDSONS  123 

A 

ways  do,  I  find  her  just  as  one  would  wish,  and  I  should 
be  sorry  to  have  her  any  older.  So  far  I  have  done 
wonderfully  well.  I  hope  to  keep  up  a  certain  easy  air 
that  I  have  assumed,  until  we  reach  Fontainebleau, 
where   I   am  longing  to   be   once   more." 

Madame  de  Maintenon,  for  her  part,  corroborates 
what  Madame  has  written  about  the  attentions  shown 
her  by  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  who  had  been  care- 
fully taught  the  way  to  the  King's  heart:  "The  princess 
is  so  polite  that  it  prevents  her  from  saying  the  least 
thing  that  is  disagreeable.  I  tried  to  resist  the  caresses 
she  bestowed  upon  me  by  telling  her  I  was  too  old. 
'Ah,  not  so  old!'  she  said  to  me.  She  came  and  kissed 
me  after  the  King  had  left  her  room,  made  me  sit  down 
and,  seating  herself  with  a  flattering  air  on  my  knees, 
she  said :  '  Mamma  told  me  to  express  her  great  friend- 
ship for  you,  and  to  ask  for  yours  for  me.  I  beg  of  you 
to  teach  me  how  to  please  the  King.'  Such  were  her 
words,  but  I  cannot  express  the  sweetness,  gayety  and 
grace  that  accompanied  them."  Madame  de  Maintenon 
assumed  practically  the  whole  care  of  the  Duchesse  de 
Bourgogne,  and  Madame  never  approved  the  principle 
on  which  she  was  educated,  which  was,  apparently,  that 
she  might  do  whatever  she  pleased.  Madame  declares 
that  she  would  hear  the  very  valets  say,  "Come,  let 
us  play  with  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  !"  and  would  see 
them  seize  the  child's  feet  and  drag  her  along  the  ground. 


124  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

The  wedding  took  place  when  the  Princess  was 
twelve,  and  the  ceremonies  are  described  in  detail  by 
the  Mercure  de  France,  the  society  journal  of  the  day: 
"They  formed  in  line  of  march  for  the  chapel.  The 
Due  de  Bourgogne  and  the  Princess  of  Savoy  marched 
in  front  of  his  Majesty;  the  princes  and  princesses 
marched  according  to  their  rank.  Never  was  magnifi- 
cence in  dress  pushed  so  far.  The  King's  costume  was 
of  cloth  of  gold  trimmed  along  the  borders  with  a  thick 
and  rich  embroidery  of  gold.  Monseigneur  (the  Dauphin) 
was  clad  in  gold  brocade  with  gold  embroidery  on  the 
borders.  The  dress  of  his  Grace  the  Due  de  Bourgogne 
was  of  black  velvet  with  a  cloak;  it  was  embroidered 
all  over  with  gold,  and  the  cloak  was  lined  with  a  fabric 
of  silver  likewise  embroidered  with  gold,  but  in  a  deli- 
cate pattern.  He  was  in  doublet,  with  open-work 
breeches  and  great  garters  covered  with  lace  such  as 
were  formerly  worn.  There  were  bows  and  ribbons 
on  his  shoes  and  a  bunch  of  plumes  in  his  hat.  The 
dress  of  the  Princess  of  Savoy  was  of  cloth  of  silver  em- 
broidered with  silver  and  trimmed  with  rubies  and 
pearls.  .  .  .  Monsieur's  dress  was  superb.  It  was  of 
black  velvet  with  thick  buttonholes  of  gold  embroidery 
in  constant  succession,  and  great  diamond  buttons. 
His  waistcoat  was  of  gold,  and  everything  that  went 
with  his  dress  was  of  the  same  richness.  .  .  .  Madame, 
the  Duchesse  de  Chartres,  and  Madame  la  duchesse  had 


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THE   KING'S   GRANDSONS  125 

dresses  of  about  the  same  quality,  namely,  of  the  finest 
gold  material  with  gold  trimmings,  the  heaviest  and 
richest  that  could  be  made.  Their  head-dresses  and 
bodices  were  adorned  with  every  kind  of  precious  stone." 
We  learn  from  Dangeau  that  the  bride  wore  all  the 
crown  jewels,  worth  nearly  twelve  million  francs,  and 
that  some  one  had  to  stand  by  her  to  prevent  her  from 
falling  over  with  the  weight.  Madame  writes  of  her- 
self: "I  had  on  a  skirt  and  underskirt  so  abominably 
heavy  that  I  could  scarcely  stand.  It  was  all  of  curled 
gold,  with  black  chenille  to  form  the  flowers,  and  the 
ornaments  were  pearls  and  diamonds.  .  .  .  My  daughter 
had  on  a  green  velvet  dress  with  upper  and  underskirt 
embroidered  with  gold,  and  the  whole  waist  bordered 
with  rubies  and  diamonds.  The  embroidery  was  care- 
fully made  so  that  each  rose  seemed  inserted.  On  the 
head  were  the  full  insignia  and  poingons  of  rubies  and 
gold  ribbon  and  covered  with  diamonds." 

"A  great  number  of  lords  and  ladies,"  continues  the 
Mercure,  "had  dresses  in  no  way  inferior  to  those  I 
have  described  to  you.  Those  ladies  who  were  no  longer 
in  their  first  youth  were  clad  in  black  velvet,  with  very 
fine  skirts  either  embroidered  or  braided  with  gold,  and 
were  adorned  with  rich  diamond  crosses.  In  all  this 
brilliancy  the  court  passed  along  the  galerie  [des  glaces], 
through  the  apartments,  down  the  staircase,  and  into 
the  chapel."     After  the  service  came  the  breakfast  in 


126  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

the  apartment  of  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne.  Then 
came  more  festivities,  fireworks,  an  illumination,  and 
supper.  "We  went  straight  to  table,"  writes  Madame, 
"which  was  in  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe.  No  one  ate 
with  us  except  those  of  the  royal  house  and  all  the  bas- 
tards. Madame  de  Verneuil  ate  with  us  too,  because 
she  was  the  widow  of  Henry  IV's  bastard.  The  time 
did  not  seem  long  to  me,  for  I  sat  next  to  my  dear  Due 
de  Berry,  who  kept  me  laughing.  He  said:  'I  see  my 
brother  making  eyes  at  his  little  wife,  but  if  I  wanted 
I  could  make  eyes  very  well,  too.  I've  known  for  a 
long  time  how  to  make  eyes;  you  only  need  to  look 
steadily,  and  sideways;'  and  he  imitated  his  brother 
right  comically." 

"On  leaving  the  table,"  writes  Saint-Simon,  "they 
went  to  put  the  bride  to  bed,  and  the  King  made  abso- 
lutely all  the  men  go  out  of  her  room.  All  the  ladies 
stayed,  and  the  Queen  of  England  gave  her  the  chemise 
which  was  handed  by  the  Duchesse  du  Lude.  The  Due 
de  Bourgogne  undressed  in  the  antechamber  in  the 
midst  of  the  whole  court  and  seated  on  a  folding  stool. 
The  King  was  there  with  all  the  princes.  The  King  of 
England  gave  him  the  shirt,  which  was  handed  by  the 
Due  de  Beauvillier.  As  soon  as  the  Duchesse  de  Bour- 
gogne was  in  bed,  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  entered  and 
placed  himself  in  the  bed  at  her  right  side  in  the  presence 
of  the  Kings  and  of  the  whole  court,   and  soon  after- 


THE   KING'S   GRANDSONS  127 

wards  the  King  and  Queen  of  England  left.  The  King 
went  to  bed,  and  every  one  left  the  nuptial  chamber 
except  Monseigneur,  the  princess's  ladies,  and  the  Due 
de  Beauvillier  who  remained  the  whole  time  at  the 
bolster  of  the  bed  on  the  side  of  his  pupil,  and  the  Duch- 
esse  du  Lude  on  the  other.  Monseigneur  remained  talk- 
ing with  them  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  but  for  which 
they  would  have  felt  rather  awkward.  Then  he  made 
his  son  rise,  but  first  made  him  kiss  the  Princess  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  the  Duchesse  du  Lude.  It  turned 
out  that  she  was  not  in  the  wrong:  the  King  disap- 
proved, and  said  he  did  not  wish  his  grandson  to  kiss 
the  end  of  his  wife's  finger  until  they  were  entirely 
together.  He  dressed  again  in  the  antechamber  be- 
cause it  was  cold,  and  went  to  bed  in  his  own  room  as 
usual.  The  little  De  Berry,  full  of  fun  and  with  his 
own  opinions,  found  the  docility  of  his  brother  all  wrong, 
and  assured  them  that  he  himself  would  have  remained 
in  the  bed." 

The  festivities  continued  for  days.  At  the  ball  on 
December  11  the  costumes  were  almost  finer  than  at 
the  wedding  itself.  The  Mercure  relates  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  nobles,  besides  their  gold-embroidered  suits, 
had  "very  rich  shoulder-knots,  bunches  of  plumes, 
several  etages  high,  sleeves  loaded  with  gold  and  silver 
lace  and  ribbons,  gloves  likewise  garnished  with  lace, 
silk  stockings   of  various   colors   and  embroidered  with 


128  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

gold,  and  ribbons  on  their  shoes."  The  ladies  were  still 
more  superbly  dressed;  their  skirts  were  " braided  with 
a  richness  one  could  not  express." 

But  it  would  simply  be  tiresome  to  rehearse  the  dif- 
ferent variations  of  gold  and  jewels  on  velvet  or  cloth 
of  gold.  Nor  can  we  delay  to  tell  of  the  magnificent 
collation  that  was  wheeled  in  on  tables  adorned  not 
with  table-cloths  but  with  "moss  and  verdure."  At 
another  ball  three  days  later  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 
wore  "a  dress  of  black  velvet  entirely  covered  with  dia- 
monds. Her  hair  was  matted  with  pearls,  and  all  the 
rest  of  her  head-dress  was  so  filled  with  diamonds  that 
one  does  not  exaggerate  in  saying  that  she  was  almost 
too  dazzling  to  behold."  Madame's  own  skirt  was 
"braided  with  rubies  and  diamonds,"  and  her  daugh- 
ter's dress  had  "large  diamonds  and  pearls  on  all  the 
seams."  Her  jupe  entre-deux,  whatever  that  may  be, 
was  trimmed  all  over  with  Spanish  point  lace  and  silver. 
One  can  well  believe  the  assertion  of  the  Mercure  that 
at  these  balls  the  "dresses  alone  were  worth  several 
millions." 

Madame  has  forebodings  as  to  the  future  of  the  Duch- 
esse de  Bourgogne.  "I  do  not  know,"  she  writes,  "  if  the 
Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  will  be  more  fortunate  than  the 
Dauphiness,  the  Grand  Duchess,  and  myself;  for  when 
we  first  came  we  were  all,  each  in  turn,  merveilleux. 
But  they  soon  tired  of  us."     As  time  went  on  the  little 


" 


Monsieur's  Drkss  at  the  Buurgugnk  Wedding 


THE   KING'S   GRANDSONS  129 

Princess  was  to  side  more  and  more  squarely  with  Ma- 
dame's  enemies  and  to  treat  her  with  great  rudeness. 
"Every  day  she  does  something  rude  to  me,"  she  once 
writes;  "at  the  King's  table  she  has  the  dishes  I  wish 
to  eat  snatched  away  from  under  my  very  nose.  When 
I  go  to  see  her,  she  looks  at  me  over  her  shoulder  and 
says  nothing,  or  she  laughs  at  me  with  her  ladies.  The 
old  woman  orders  that  expressly;  she  hopes  I  will  get 
angry  and  lose  my  temper." 

The  character  of  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  went  through 
several  phases.  Madame  complains  at  first  of  his  hor- 
rible debauchery  and  of  his  pride  and  arrogance.  But 
then  he  becomes  "so  horribly  devout  that  I  think  he  is 
getting  quite  idiotic  and  may  turn  into  a  quietist." 
Even  the  King  is  alarmed  and  says  to  him  sarcastically, 
when  summoning  him  to  an  important  council,  "Unless 
you  prefer  to  go  to  vespers."  Madame  thinks  his  wife's 
flirtations  ought  to  be  mortification  enough  for  him,  and 
tells  how  he  "goes  no  longer  to  plays,  will  hear  of  no 
opera,  and  turns  the  finest  operatic  melodies  into  hymns." 
And  she  finds  his  prudishness  even  more  unprincely 
than  his  devoutness.  She  tells  how  a  lady  of  the  court 
tried  to  kiss  him  by  force:  "For  a  long  time  he  resisted; 
and  when  his  strength  was  at  an  end,  he  stuck  a  great 
pin  into  her  head  so  that  she  had  to  take  to  her  room 
and  to  her  bed.  Even  Joseph  was  not  so  bad  as  that; 
he  merely  left  his  coat  and  ran,  but  did  not  hit  and  stab. 


130  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

That  was  more  like  a  monk  of  La  Trappe."  Eventually 
the  Due  de  Bourgogne  struck  a  happy  medium  between 
his  debauchery  and  his  piety,  and  Madame  came  to  ad- 
mire him  greatly. 

In  1698  Madame's  daughter,  the  young  Elizabeth 
Charlotte,  was  married  to  the  Due  de  Lorraine,  who  was 
technically  known  as  a  foreign  prince  or  prince  etranger. 
"The  foreign  princes,"  writes  Sainctot,  in  his  ceremonial, 
"are  those  descended  from  a  sovereign  family  who  have 
settled  in  France  and  whom  the  King  himself  has  recog- 
nized as  such;  as,  for  instance,  the  princes  of  the  house 
of  Lorraine,  of  Monaco,  of  Rohan,  and  of  Bouillon,  and 
La  Tremouille.  They  are  called  ' foreign  princes'  be- 
cause they  may  not  succeed  to  the  throne."  Madame 
has  no  enthusiasm  for  this  Lorraine  match;  and  indeed 
no  one  would  have  ventured  to  prophesy  at  that  time 
that  the  young  Duchess's  son  would  one  day  become 
Holy  Roman  Emperor  and  that  her  granddaughter, 
Marie  Antoinette,   would  become  Queen  of  France. 

Madame  writes  of  the  wedding:  "I  do  not  know  if 
my  daughter's  marriage  will  end  well,  but  it  began  very 
sadly;  for  when  they  united  them,  every  one  in  the 
chapel  wept,  —  the  King,  the  King  and  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, all  the  princesses,  all  the  clergy,  all  the  courtiers 
down  to  the  guards  and  Swiss,  all  the  envoys,  the  people ; 
in  short,  every  one.  Every  one  has  wept  bitter  tears  — 
with  the  exception  of  the  Dauphin  who  did  not  shed  a 


THE  KING'S   GRANDSONS  131 

single  tear  and  looked  on  the  whole  thing  as  a  spectacle. 
The  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  has  at  last  shown  that  she 
has  a  good  heart,  for  she  was  so  sad  that  she  could  not 
eat  and  did  nothing  but  weep  bitterly  after  saying  good- 
by  to  her  aunt.  .  .  . 

"I  think  in  Lorraine  they  will  find  my  daughter  not 
badly  equipped.  She  has  20,000  thalers'  worth  of  linens 
and  laces,  very  fine  and  in  great  quantity  —  four  large, 
strong  chests  full." 

Madame  writes  about  this  time  that  the  "match  is 
not  so  delightful  as  to  make  one  rejoice  much,  but  not 
unreasonable  enough  to  make  one  sad  .  .  .  my  only 
consolation  in  this  marriage  is  that  we  shall  not  have 
Stinknase."  It  speaks  well  for  Madame's  control  of  her- 
self that  with  her  own  daughter-in-law  she  never,  so  far 
as  is  known,  had  a  quarrel  or  scene  of  any  kind.  "One 
lives  outwardly  on  good  terms  here,"  she  once  writes 
from  Versailles,  "but  all  are  really  like  cats  and  dogs  as 
regards  each  other."  Inwardly,  at  all  events,  Madame 
seethes  like  a  volcano ;  she  writes  that  she  cannot  stand 
that  crooked  figure,  that  painted  face,  those  pendent 
cheeks,  that  pursed-up  mouth,  that  air  of  indolence 
"as  though  she  would  like  larks  ready  roasted  to  drop 
into  her  mouth.  .  .  .  Her  pride  and  ill-humor  are  un- 
bearable and  her  face  is  thoroughly  unpleasant.  She  has  a 
horrible  way  of  talking  as  though  her  mouth  were  full  of 
meal,  and  her  head  is  always  wagging.  ...     I  have  to  see 


132  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

this  cursed  creature  every  day  before  my  eyes;  it  is  a 
hellish  torture."  Her  favorite  simile  for  her  is  mouse- 
excrement  that  has  contaminated  the  pepper.  She  writes 
in  1696:  "Our  mouse-excrement  has  again  drunk  herself 
full  to  the  brim.  I  fear  she  will  never  in  her  life  shake  off 
the  habit."  "  Drinking  is  dreadfully  common  among 
women  of  quality  in  this  country,"  Madame  writes 
later  in  another  connection,  "five  of  them  recently  got 
raving  drunk,  and  when  they  no  longer  knew  what  they 
were  doing,  they  took  the  drunkest  one,  laid  her  on  the 
ground,  and  then  kicked  her  all  over  until  they  had  made 
her  a  perfect  bladder."  According  to  her,  her  daughter- 
in-law  got  drunk  three  times  a  week„  Even  as  long  as 
twenty  years  after  the  wedding  Madame  writes  of  poor 
Madame  d'Orleans:  "With  all  her  gravity  she  is  never 
without  some  affair ;  though  to  tell  the  honest  truth  she 
keeps  herself  well  within  bounds  and  will  never  cause  an 
eclat.  All  Paris  considers  her  a  Vestal ;  but  I  who  look 
closer  know  well  how  it  stands.  She  lives  on  good  terms 
with  me,  and  I  am  careful  not  to  cause  her  the  least 
vexation.  I  advise  my  son,  too,  to  live  on  good  terms 
with  her,  for  what  good  would  an  eclat  be  ?  The  King 
would  side  with  his  daughter,  and  my  son  would  have  to 
keep  her,  eclat  and  all.  So  it  is  better  to  take  no  notice 
and  live  well  together." 

"One  must  confess  the  truth,"  she  writes  again;  "my 
boy  defiled  himself  terribly  with  this  creature." 


Madame's  Dress  at  the  Wedding 


THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  133 

Her  boy  himself  was  no  paragon.  She  tells  how  he  ca- 
rouses with  female  companions  until  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  looks  as  if  he  had  just  been  pulled  out  of 
the  grave.  She  gives  later  a  list  and  description  of  his 
illegitimate  children.  He  was  mixed  up  —  in  1696  —  in 
the  affair  of  a  sorceress  and  poisoner,  but  the  King  sup- 
pressed the  papers  that  compromised  him.  Madame 
writes  to  her  son  in  this  connection:  "He  [the  King] 
has  taken  pains  to  prevent  them  from  reading  in  full 
court  your  letters  from  one  of  your  dearest  confidants 
who  will  possibly  be  burned  alive.  0  that  you  may  look 
on  this  affair  with  the  same  horror  that  I  do,  and  that  it 
may  cure  you  forever  from  associating  with  such  canaille  ! 
My  hair  stands  on  end  when  I  think  of  it ;  for  if  the  King 
had  not  withdrawn  your  letters,  you  would  have  been  lost 
forever  in  the  minds  of  all  honest  people."  She  later 
speaks  of  " infamous  purchases"  her  son  has  made  for 
the  woman  who  is  "to  be  burned  for  the  greatest  and  most 
horrible  infamies  in  the  world";  and  declares  that  she 
has  lost  all  hope  of  ever  seeing  him  an  honest  man.  And 
again:  "This  affair  has  made  a  furious  commotion  in 
Paris,  and,  as  people  always  exaggerate,  they  say  that 
my  son  was  trying  to  learn  to  be  a  sorcerer.  It  has  a 
very  bad  effect."  Later,  in  1712,  she  writes:  "My  son 
is  just  like  the  story  of  the  fairies  who  were  bidden 
to  the  christening.  One  wishes  that  the  child  be  well 
formed;  another  that  it  be  eloquent;  the  third  that  it 


134  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

learn  all  the  arts ;  the  fourth  that  it  learn  bodily  exer- 
cises, such  as  fencing,  riding,  and  dancing ;  the  fifth  wishes 
him  to  thoroughly  learn  the  art  of  war ;  the  sixth  to  have 
more  courage  than  another.  But  the  seventh  fairy,  they 
have  forgotten  to  invite  to  the  christening,  she  says: 
1 1  cannot  take  from  the  child  what  my  sisters  have  given 
him,  but  all  my  life  I  shall  be  hostile  to  him  so  that  every- 
thing good  that  they  have  given  him  shall  be  of  no  use. 
I  will  give  him  such  an  ugly  walk  that  he  shall  be  thought 
to  be  lame  and  hunch-backed;  I  will  make  him  grow 
such  a  black  beard  and  give  him  such  grimaces  as  will 
completely  disguise  him ;  I  will  make  him  hate  all  bodily 
exercise;  I  will  fill  him  with  a  weariness  that  shall  make 
him  hate  all  his  arts,  his  music,  his  painting,  his  drawing ; 
I  will  give  him  a  love  of  loneliness  and  a  horror  of  honest 
people;  I  will  often  bring  him  misfortune  in  war;  I 
will  persuade  him  that  debauchery  is  very  suitable  for 
him;  I  will  give  him  a  horror  for  the  advice  of  his  best 
friends,  —  and  therewith  all  the  good  shall  be  destroyed 
with  which  my  sisters  have  endowed  him.' 

"That  is  exactly  what  has  happened  and  that  is  why  he 
would  rather  sit  with  his  daughter  and  her  chambermaids, 
listening  to  silly  jokes,  than  frequent  upright  people  or 
govern  his  own  household  as  his  rank  demands.  Now 
your  Grace  knows  all  about  it.  ..." 

The  King's  coldness  to  Madame  grows  very  marked. 
She  writes  in  1696:    "They  treat  me  very  rudely  here. 


THE  KING'S  GRANDSONS  135 

Every  day  they  let  me  wait  half  an  hour  at  the  King's 
door  before  admitting  me.  They  often  send  me  away 
entirely.  ...  It  is  a  little  hard  to  swallow  that  they 
treat  one  like  a  chambermaid.  Monsieur  himself  en- 
courages it,  and  the  worse  they  treat  me,  the  better  he 
likes  it."  She  grew  very  pessimistic.  "The  splendor 
and  renown  of  great  courts,"  she  later  writes,  "  is  like  the 
scenery  of  an  opera.  Viewed  from  afar  all  is  brilliant  and 
attractive ;  but  go  behind  the  scenes,  look  at  the  ropes  and 
pulleys,  and  nothing  can  be  more  sordid  and  disgusting. 
.  .  .  You  are  quite  right  to  thank  God  you  are  single, 
for  the  best  marriages  are  devilishly  bad.  I  am  neither 
pretty,  young,  nor  rich,  but  were  I  all  three  together  and 
a  handsome  shapely  emperor  wanted  me,  I  should  decline 
with  thanks.  ...  To  be  Madame  is  a  miserable  trade. 
Could  I  have  sold  it  as  they  sell  the  court  posts  in  this 
country,  I  should  long  since  have  put  it  on  the  market. 
.  .  .  Had  I  known  what  I  know  now,  France  would  never 
have  seen  me."  No  good,  she  declares,  ever  came  of 
changing  one's  religion. 

Yet  all  the  same  she  writes  again  later:  "Court  life 
has  this  about  it,  and  it  has  always  been  found,  that  how- 
ever badly  it  may  suit  them,  those  who  are  accustomed 
to  it  can  never  endure  any  other  kind  of  life." 

She  goes  on  for  years  being  in  the  court,  but  not  of  it. 
"I  am  only  in  limbo,"  she  writes  in  1699,  "where  one  hears 
the  joys  of  Paradise  from  afar,  but  does  not  share  them." 


136  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

In  the  same  breath  she  tells  of  a  visit  to  Madame  deMainte- 
non,  whom  she  found  sitting  in  an  arm-chair  with  some 
of  the  princes  of  the  blood  around  her  on  tabourets :  "They 
did  me  the  honor  of  bringing  me  a  tabouret  too,  but  I 
assured  them  I  was  not  tired.  I  had  to  bite  my  tongue 
to  keep  from  laughing.  Times  have  indeed  changed 
since  the  King  came  to  beg  me  to  allow  Madame  Scarron 
to  eat  with  me  just  once  merely  to  cut  the  Due  du  Maine's 
food!" 

*gfa  wMg  vl*  «.L»  vl« 

"l»  *J*  *^  *J*  *^ 

In  1700  came  the  turning  point  in  Louis  XIV's  career. 
He  broke  his  treaties  regarding  the  succession  to  the  throne 
of  Spain  and  accepted  the  whole  inheritance  for  his  second 
grandson,  the  Due  d'Anjou,  thus  drawing  down  upon  him- 
self a  ruinous  war  which  lasted  for  fourteen  years. 

Madame  has  most  interesting  letters  on  the  acceptance 
of  the  crown,  on  the  ceremony  with  which  the  new  King 
of  Spain  was  treated  by  his  own  father  and  grandfather, 
and  on  the  leave-taking  and  departure,  which,  as  was 
doubtless  anticipated  at  the  time,  was  to  be  forever. 
On  November  10,  1700,  Madame  writes:  "To-day  I  will 
tell  your  Grace  a  great  piece  of  news  that  came  yesterday 
morning,  though  they  have  long  anticipated  it,  namely, 
the  death  of  the  King  of  Spain.  The  Queen  [of 
Spain]  is  said  to  be  ill  with  grief.  The  King  died 
on  the   1st    of   this  month   at  three  in  the  afternoon. 


'  Philippe  (Jin   d  uy'ov 


Thk  Die  i)  Anjou 


THE  KING'S  GRANDSONS  137 

To-day  they  sent  our  King  the  copy  of  the  will.  The 
Due  d'Anjou  is  appointed  heir,  and  a  grandee  of  Spain 
is  said  to  have  taken  post  at  once  with  the  original  will 
in  order  to  bring  it  to  the  Due  d'Anjou  and  invite  him  to 
be  King.  In  case  the  King  [Louis  XIV]  refuses  it  for 
the  Due  d'Anjou,  the  same  grandee  of  Spain  has  orders  at 
once  to  proceed  to  Vienna  and  offer  the  crown  of  Spain 
to  the  Emperor.  I  imagine  therefore  that  they  are  a 
little  embarrassed  here  about  the  treaty  that  has  been 
concluded  with  Holland  and  England.  If  they  refuse 
the  crown,  they  will  be  playing  the  Due  d'Anjou  a  mean 
trick.  I  have  been  assured  that  the  King  publicly  took 
the  Pantocrate  with  him  yesterday  into  the  council, 
which  seemed  a  little  strange  to  the  courtiers.  We  shall 
soon  see  what  the  result  will  be ;  as  soon  as  I  learn  I  will 
tell  your  Grace.  The  Pantocrate  is  polite  when  she  wishes 
to  be ;  it  is  true  she  has  not  the  grand  air,  but  where  should 
she  have  got  it  from?" 

A  few  days  later  we  have  this :  "  Yesterday  every  one 
was  whispering  in  the  other's  ear,  'Don't  mention 
it,  but  the  King  has  accepted  the  crown  of  Spain  for 
the  Due  d'Anjou.'  I  kept  perfectly  still,  but  when  on 
the  hunt  I  heard  the  Due  d'Anjou  behind  me  on  a 
narrow  road,  I  stopped  short  and  said :  '  Pass  on,  great 
King,  pass  on,  your  Majesty!'  I  wish  your  Grace 
could  have  seen  how  amazed  the  good  child  was 
that  I  should   know  about  it.     His  little  brother,  the 


138  A   LADY  OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

Due  de  Berry,  nearly  died  laughing  over  it.  He,  the  Due 
d'Anjou,  looks  just  like  a  King  of  Spain,  —  seldom 
laughs  and  never  loses  his  gravity.  They  say  the  King 
secretly  told  him  yesterday  that  he  was  King,  but  that 
he  was  not  to  let  any  one  know  about  it.  He  was  playing 
V ombre  in  his  room,  but  he  could  not  restrain  himself. 
He  said  nothing,  indeed,  but  sprang  up.  But  immediately 
he  sat  down  again  with  his  former  gravity,  as  if  he  knew 
nothing  about  it.  It  is  true  this  young  King  has  not  so 
much  vivacity  as  his  youngest  little  brother,  nor  so  much 
intelligence.  But  otherwise  he  has  exceptionally  good 
qualities:  a  good  disposition,  is  generous  (which  few 
of  his  house  are) ;  truthful,  for  nothing  in  the  world  can 
make  him  tell  a  lie,  and  one  cannot  have  a  greater  horror 
of  lying  than  he  has.  He  will  also  keep  his  promises, 
is  merciful,  has  courage:  in  short,  he  is  a  right  virtuous 
prince  without  any  guile  in  him.  Were  he  a  common 
nobleman,  one  could  say  that  he  was  a  right  honest  man, 
and  I  believe  that  those  who  are  to  be  around  him  will 
be  happy.  I  believe  he  will  be  as  strong  as  the  King  of 
Poland  [Augustus  the  Strong],  for  already  a  year  ago  the 
strongest  man  here  could  not  bend  his  wrists.  He  looks 
right  Austrian,  —  always  has  his  mouth  open.  I  speak 
to  him  about  it  a  hundred  times.  When  he  is  told,  he 
shuts  his  mouth,  for  he  is  very  obedient.  But  as  soon  as 
he  forgets  himself,  he  opens  his  mouth  again.  He  talks 
very  little  except  with  me ;  for  I  give  him  no  rest  but  tor- 


THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  139 

ment  him  the  whole  time.  He  has  a  harsh  voice  and  speaks 
very  slowly;  I  make  him  laugh  sometimes,  too.  I  like 
him  better  than  the  Due  du  Bourgogne,  for  he  is  good, 
and  not  so  scornful,  —  he  is  better  looking,  too.  But 
the  one  I  love  from  my  heart,  as  if  he  were  my  own  child, 
is  the  Due  de  Berry.  He  is  a  nice  child,  always  merry, 
and  bursts  out  with  the  most  comical  things." 

On  November  18  Madame  writes  as  follows:  "In 
order  to  amuse  your  Grace  I  will  tell  you  how  they 
made  the  Spanish  King  here.  Tuesday  morning  the 
King  summoned  the  good  Due  d'Anjou  to  his  cabinet  and 
said  to  him,  '  You  are  King  of  Spain.'  Then  he  allowed 
the  Spanish  ambassadors  and  all  the  Spaniards  who  are 
living  here  to  come  in ;  they  fell  at  their  King's  feet  and 
kissed  his  hand,  one  after  the  other,  and  then  stood  behind 
their  King.  Afterwards  our  King  led  the  young  King 
of  Spain  into  the  salon,  where  the  whole  court  was  as- 
sembled and  said,  '  Gentlemen,  behold  the  King  of  Spain ; 
salute  him.'  At  once  there  was  a  cry  of  joy,  and  everyone 
came  up  and  kissed  the  young  King's  hand.  Afterwards 
our  King  said,  'Let  us  go  and  give  thanks  to  God;  come, 
your  Majesty,  to  mass.'  He  at  onee  gave  the  young  King 
his  right  hand,  and  they  went  together  to  the  mass.  The 
King  made  him  kneel  next  to  him  on  his  prie  dieu  and  on 
his  right.  After  mass  our  King  accompanied  him  to  his 
apartment,  which  is  the  large  one  ;  afterwards  his  brothers 
came  and  visited  him.     My  Due  de  Berry  was  so  happy 


140  A  LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

that  he  kissed  the  hand  of  his  brother,  the  King  of  Spain, 
for  joy.  In  the  afternoon  the  young  King  drove  to 
Meudon  to  visit  his  father,  who  is  there.  The  latter  went 
to  meet  him  as  far  as  the  antechamber.  He  had  just  been 
in  the  garden  and  did  not  imagine  that  his  son,  the  King 
of  Spain,  would  come  so  soon;  so  he  was  out  of  breath 
when  he  arrived  and  said:  'I  see  one  must  never  swear; 
for  I  should  certainly  have  sworn  that  I  would  never 
put  myself  out  of  breath  by  going  to  meet  my  son,  the 
Due  d'Anjou.  Yet  here  I  am,  out  of  breath.'  The  good 
young  King  was  quite  put  out  of  countenance  at  seeing 
himself  treated  like  a  foreign  king  by  his  father,  who 
conducted  him  to  his  coach  when  he  drove  away.  Yester- 
day morning  Monseigneur  returned  the  visit  to  his  son, 
the  King." 

Of  the  King  of  Spain  she  writes  ten  years  later,  showing 
that  his  character  had  not  changed  in  the  meantime: 
"If  one  were  to  say  to  him  '  stay  there !'  and  put  him  in 
front  of  a  hundred  cannon,  he  would  stand  like  a  wall. 
Again,  if  those  he  is  used  to  should  say  'go  away/  he  would 
go  at  once.  He  does  not  trust  himself,  he  does  what  he 
is  told." 

The  departure  for  Spain  took  place  on  December  4. 
On  the  5th  Madame  writes  (and  her  letter  shows  that  there 
were  some  human  feelings  left  to  all  these  people):  "I 
must  also  tell  your  Grace  about  the  sad  day  we  had 
yesterday,  and  how  the  parting  with  the  dear  good  King 


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THE  KING'S   GRANDSONS  141 

of  Spain  went  off.  Yesterday  at  nine  in  the  morning  every- 
one waited  in  his  room.  At  ten  we  all  went  with  our  King 
to  the  King  of  Spain,  and  from  there  to  the  mass  which 
we  heard  from  the  gallery.  I  don't  know  whether  it 
was  the  music  that  softened  all  hearts,  but  every  one 
began  to  weep.  After  mass  we  went  down  the  great 
staircase,  which  was  perfectly  full  of  people,  as  was  also 
the  outer  court.  The  big  Princesse  de  Conti  and  my  son 
accompanied  me  to  the  coach,  for  they  were  not  going 
with  us  to  Sceaux.  In  the  King's  coach  we  were  eight: 
the  two  Kings  had  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  between 
them;  the  Dauphin  and  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  had  the 
Due  de  Berry  between  them ;  Monsieur  and  I  sat  on  the 
side  seats.  From  here  to  Sceaux  the  road  was  lined  with 
people  on  foot,  on  horseback  and  in  coaches.  The  King 
had  his  guards,  his  light  horse,  and  his  gendarmes,  and 
at  Sceaux  were  the  two  companies  of  musketeers.  The 
Avenue  de  Sceaux  is  very  long,  longer  than  from  here 
to  Trianon ;  on  both  sides  it  was  occupied  by  three  rows 
of  coaches  which  had  drawn  up  there  to  see  the  departure 
of  the  King  of  Spain.  It  is  thought  that  there  were  more 
than  two  thousand  coaches  at  Sceaux,  not  counting  the 
King's  and  those  that  followed  the  court.  As  soon  as  we 
had  got  out  at  Sceaux,  which  by  the  way,  belongs  now 
to  the  Due  du  Maine  who  bought  it  from  young  Seignelay, 
the  King  went  through  the  double  file  into  the  last  room 
and   commanded   that   no   one   should   follow.     We   all 


142  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

stayed  in  a  salon  with  Monseigneur  and  his  two  sons.  A 
quarter  of  an  hour  later  the  King  summoned  the  Spanish 
ambassador  who  stayed  in  there  a  little  while.  When  he 
came  out,  the  King  called  the  Dauphin  and  remained 
another  quarter  of  an  hour  with  him.  Afterwards  the 
King  called  the  Due  de  Bourgogne,  his  wife,  the  Due  de 
Berry,  Monsieur,  and  me,  and  there  we  took  leave  of  the 
King  of  Spain,  and  his  brothers.  All  wept  heartily.  We 
stayed  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  then  the  King  summoned 
the  princes  and  princesses  of  the  blood,  who  all  took  leave. 
Every  one  wept  and  wailed.  The  Dauphin,  who  generally 
seems  quite  indifferent,  was  terribly  affected  and  embraced 
his  son  with  such  tenderness  that  I  still  have  to  weep 
when  I  so  much  as  think  of  it.  I  thought  father  and  son 
would  die  of  grief.  The  good  King  embraced  me  also  so 
from  his  heart  that  I  could  not  speak  a  word  for  weeping. 
The  King  said  at  last,  "Let  some  one  go  and  see  if  every- 
thing is  ready."  Shortly  afterwards  a  voice  called, 
"Sire,  everything  is  ready."  "So  much  the  worse," 
said  the  King  of  Spain.  We  embraced  once  again.  The 
good  Due  de  Berry  wept,  and  doubtless  from  the  bottom 
of  his  heart;  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  did  not  actually 
weep,  but  his  eyes  were  red.  Our  King  accompanied  the 
King  of  Spain  to  the  end  of  the  apartments.  One  heard 
and  saw  nothing  but  pocket  handkerchiefs  and  wiping  of 
eyes ;  men  and  women  all  wept  bitterly.  As  soon  as  the 
King  of  Spain  and  his  brothers  had  driven  off,  the  Dauphin 


THE    KING'S   GRANDSONS  143 

got  into  his  chaise  and  drove  to  Meudon,  our  King  got 
into  a  little  caleche  with  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne, 
Monsieur  and  I  took  a  drive  and  looked  at  Sceaux,  which 
is  a  wonderfully  beautiful  garden." 

****** 

History  was  indeed  in  the  making  under  Madame's 
eyes.  She  continues  to  follow  the  doings  of  William 
of  England  with  great  interest  and  to  criticise  King 
James'  piety.  "  I  cannot  endure  praying  Kings/'  she 
writes  in  1696 ;  "  that  is  not  what  God  put  them  on  their 
thrones  for.  .  .  .  Let  them  pray  morning  and  evening 
and  make  their  subjects  happy  the  rest  of  the  time." 

Of  King  James,  Matthew  Prior,  the  English  poet,  writes 
from  Paris  in  1698:  "This  court  is  gone  to  see  their 
monarch  a  cock-horse  at  Compeigne.  ...  I  faced  old 
James  and  all  his  court  the  other  day  at  St.  Cloud  [where 
they  had  doubtless  been  to  visit  Madame] ;  vive  Guillaume  ! 
You  never  saw  such  a  strange  figure  as  the  old  bully  is, 
lean,  worn,  and  riv'led,  not  unlike  Neale  the  projectour; 
the  Queen  looks  very  melancholy,  but  otherwise  well 
enough;  their  equipages  are  all  very  ragged  and  con- 
temptible." 

A  friend  of  Prior's  writes  a  little  later  to  the  Duke 
of  Shrewsbury  :  "I  had  a  letter  from  Prior  yesterday.  .  .  . 
He  hears  that  King  James  and  his  Queen  are  highly 
caressed  at  Fontainebleau  ;  that  the  chief  court  was  made 
to  Queen  Mary,  everybody  being  at  her  toilet  in  the  morn- 


144  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

ing;  that  the  King  of  France  comes  thither  to  lead  her 
to  chapel ;  that  at  meals  the  Queen  is  placed  between  the 
two  Kings  at  the  upper  end  of  the  table,  and  equal  marks 
of  distinction  and  sovereignty  are  paid  to  all  three,  and 
a  boire  pour  le  Roi  aV Angleterre,  ou  pour  la  Reine  is  spoken 
out  as  loud,  and  with  as  much  ceremony,  as  for  the  King 
of  France." 

Yet  all  the  same  Madame  writes  in  1700:  "They  still 
live  on  polite  terms  with  these  royal  personages  here,  but 
they  do  all  that  King  William  desires." 

Madame  herself  had  a  curious  antipathy  to  the  English 
as  a  people.  "It  has  been  observed,"  she  writes,  "that 
all  insular  people  are  more  false  and  malicious  than  those 
who  live  on  terra  ftrma.  .  .  .  Don't  be  so  foolish,  dear 
Louisa,  as  to  die  in  England.  ...  A  good  honest 
German  is  better  than  all  the  English  put  together.  .  .  . 
The  English  are  crazy  people  who  are  difficult  to  get  along 
with  and  who  all  hate  their  Kings.  When  Lord  Peter- 
borough was  here,  he  praised  our  King  extremely.  Some 
one  said,  'What!  are  you  praising  Kings  now?'  'I  love 
all  Kings,'  he  answered,  '  except  our  own.'  What  hope  or 
trust  can  one  put  in  such  people?" 

After  the  Duke  of  Gloucester's  death  in  August,  1700, 
Madame  becomes  more  and  more  interested  in  English 
affairs  because  of  her  aunt's  nearness  to  the  succession. 
"It  would  be  nice  if  your  Grace  could  still  be  Queen," 
she  writes :  "I  had  rather  it  happened  to  your  Grace  than 


THE   KING'S   GRANDSONS  145 

to  myself."  She  is  convinced  that  Queen  Anne,  because 
she  is  such  a  hard  drinker,  cannot  live  long.  She  fears, 
indeed,  that  it  wall  be  difficult  for  her  aunt  to  keep  such 
a  crazy  people  as  the  English  in  order,  but  later  she 
changes  her  tone  and  declares  that  she  is  grateful  to  the 
English  for  showing  such  affection  for  the  Electress. 

In  the  summer  of  1701  King  James'  health  began 
visibly  to  fail.  It  is  his  unbounded  piety,  Madame 
avers,  that  is  killing  him ;  and  she  tells  how  he  has  knelt 
and  prayed  so  long  that  at  last  he  fell  over  in  a  swoon. 
She  drives  to  St.  Germain  to  see  him  and  finds  him  in  a 
most  wretched  state,  but  grateful  for  her  solicitude. 
She  tells  of  touching  scenes  between  him  and  his  children, 
and  of  how  they  had  to  tear  the  Prince  of  Wales  away  from 
him  by  force.  "  Nothing  was  more  pitiful  than  to  see  this 
court,"  so  Madame  writes;  "they  made  me  weep  from 
my  very  heart.  The  good  Queen  is  in  an  indescribable 
condition.  It  would  move  a  stone  to  tears.  .  .  .  This 
King  is  dying  like  a  regular  saint.  .  .  .  Everything  is 
most  melancholy  here ;  one  hears  of  nothing  but  of  agony, 
death,  and  misfortune."  She  tells  of  the  famous  assur- 
ance of  Louis  that  he  will  regard  and  proclaim  James' 
son  as  King  of  England,  but  adds,  "I  could  not  help 
thinking  that  it  would  do  more  harm  than  good  to  this 
young  King." 

She  tells  with  some  detail  how  they  "  opened  "  King 
James  after  his  death  and  found  "everything  in  his  body 


146  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

decayed  and  his  heart  withered  up."  And  again:  "No 
wonder  King  James'  blood  was  entirely  corrupted  through 
the  grief  the  poor  King  had  to  bear.  He  said  before  his 
death  that  he  had  suffered  horribly,  and  that  what  had 
mortified  him  most  had  been  that  people  had  considered 
him  unfeeling  and  despised  him  for  it.  .  .  .  He  was 
the  best  man  in  the  world,  but  his  weakness  was  priests. 
I  have  never  seen  a  greater  passion  than  he  had  for  them. 
If  he  was  in  conversation  with  the  King  or  one  of  us  and 
a  clerk  or  priest,  especially  a  Jesuit,  chanced  to  come  into 
the  room,  he  dropped  everything  and  ran  up  to  him." 

To  conclude  here  with  Madame's  relations  to  the  exiled 
Stuarts,  it  may  be  said  that  she  felt  a  warm  affection  for 
the  Pretender  and  always  hoped  to  see  him  back  upon  his 
throne.  "The  Prince  of  Wales,"  she  writes  in  1695,  "is 
very  well-behaved.  I  think  with  time  he  will  have  much 
intelligence,  for  he  is  full  of  vivacity.  If  what  they  tell 
me  is  true,  he  is  not  likely  to  become  a  bigot.  English 
nuns  had  sent  him  a  chapel  which  was  very  prettily  made. 
His  tutor,  wishing  to  inspire  him  with  a  love  of  prayer, 
thought  he  could  do  it  better  in  this  doll's  chapel,  which 
was  large  enough  for  the  Prince  to  enter.  But  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  instead  of  praying,  took  a  stick  and  broke  the 
chapel  to  pieces.  They  were  about  to  scold  him,  but  he 
said,  'Why  should  I  not  hate  what  made  me  lose  my 
kingdom?'  These  words  so  frightened  the  bystanders 
that  nobody  said  anything  more  to  him." 


THE   KING'S  GRANDSONS  147 

Madame  writes  in  December,  1702:  " Tuesday  I  drove 
to  St.  Germain  and  visited  the  unhappy  royalties  there. 
I  am  afraid  the  Queen  will  die  finally,  for  her  Majesty  is 
as  thin  and  dried  up  as  a  pole,  looks  pale  as  death,  and 
night  and  day  does  nothing  but  weep.  She  cannot  sleep 
any  more  at  night-  and  cannot  become  resigned  to  her  mis- 
fortune; so  I  fear  that  her  Majesty  will  waste  away  en- 
tirely. The  little  King  is  growing  fast,  but  his  chin  is  get- 
ting a  little  too  thin.  He  is  altogether  very  thin.  The 
little  Princess  is  large  for  her  age,  too,  and  has  a  pretty 
waist  and  figure ;  but  her  face  is  not  pretty  at  all.  She 
has  pretty  eyes,  indeed,  but  a  very  big  mouth,  and  the 
face  is  too  long  and  narrow  for  her  age.  Good  King 
James  wrote  letters  to  the  King  and  to  the  late  Monsieur 
which  were  found  in  his  portfolio.  They  are  perfect 
sermons. " 

In  December,  1707,  we  have  this :  "Our  young  King  of 
England  may  have  good  sense  and  intelligence,  but  he  has 
no  vivacity.  He  is  well  brought  up,  exceedingly  polite, 
but  always  dreamy  and  sad  and  unhealthy.  There  is 
always  something  the  matter.  He  laughs  himself  at  his 
reveries  and  distractions  and  is  not  angry  at  all  when  one 
laughs  at  him  for  it.  He  has  a  very  good  disposition, 
has  a  great  respect  and  love  for  the  Queen,  his  mother,  and 
a  tender  love  for  his  sister,  who  is  quite  different  in  char- 
acter from  himself." 

And  in  March,   1708,  this:    "We  are  daily  expecting 


148  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

news  that  our  young  King  of  England  has  arrived  in 
Scotland.  They  have  only  once  had  news  from  his 
Majesty  since  they  sailed  away  from  Ostende  with  a 
good  breeze.  A  frigate  met  this  King  a  hundred  miles 
from  Dunkirk,  and  they  had  just  had  news  that  all  Scot- 
land had  declared  for  him,  was  awaiting  him  with  longing, 
and  would  immediately,  as  soon  as  his  Majesty  should 
have  landed,  proclaim  him  King.  It  serves  Queen  Anne 
right.  She  was  so  eager  for  war;  now  she  will  have  war 
enough.  They  say  it  is  her  purse  that  has  kept  up  the 
war  until  now ;  God  grant  that  she  may  need  her  money, 
so  that  the  Emperor  may  be  compelled  to  make  peace. 
...  I  had  to  laugh  at  your  Grace  calling  the  King  of 
England  the  'King  in  partibus,'  like  a  bishop.  But  he 
really  is  the  lawful  heir." 

"Is  not  the  Chevalier  St.  George  perfectly  right  to 
wish  to  mount  the  throne  of  his  fathers,"  she  asks  in 
1715,  "and  to  do  his  utmost  to  that  end?  One  can 
blame  him  as  little  for  it  as  one  can  King  George  for 
wishing  to  maintain  himself  on  his  throne.  .  .  .  Lord 
Stairs  thought  Chevalier  St.  George  had  left  Bar, 
but  where  should  the  poor  prince  go  to  without  a  ship 
and  without  troops?  At  the  present  moment  there  is 
certainly  no  danger  from  his  expeditions,  but  in  time  war 
may  come  of  it  if  this  prince  do  not  die  soon.  .  .  .  There 
is  a  report  here  that  the  Chevalier  St.  George  has  fled, 
has  found  a  bark,  and    gone  to   England.     If   so,  King 


ie&  4'«/U£  a,JL'ar%f  c^x   Thernnur-rin    rut   «/ "  TeLcquts  ■vur   a  -vis   f*t  rue  Ju  FLitrc  a.  Itrn.iqf    *?   Icasi  j4u<<  frit''^ 

The  Old  Pretender 


THE  KING'S   GRANDSONS  149 

George  will  have  something  to  do.  I  wish  you  were  all 
away  from  the  cursed  false  people.  .  .  ." 

News  comes  of  the  landing:  "I  imagine  a  great  many 
will  be  untrue  to  King  George  now  that  the  Chevalier 
St.  George  is  in  Scotland.  They  told  me  this  evening 
how  he  escaped.  He  was  at  Commercy,  at  the  Prince  de 
Vaudemont's,  and  went  stag  hunting.  After  the  hunt 
he  gave  them  a  hunt  supper  (a  retour  de  chasse),  they 
were  at  table  until  four  in  the  morning.  When  he  got  to 
his  room,  he  said  that  he  had  been  up  too  late  to  rise  early, 
and  that  they  should  let  him  sleep  until  two  in  the  after- 
noon. When  his  people  came  to  wake  him  at  two,  they 
found  the  bed  empty.  They  were  frightened  and  ran 
to  Prince  de  Vaudemont.  He  pretended  to  know  nothing 
about  it,  and  said  they  must  search  for  Chevalier  St. 
George.  After  they  had  searched  everywhere  for  him 
for  an  hour  and  not  found  him,  the  Prince  de  Vaudemont 
said:  'Let  us  go  to  dinner,  for  all  the  drawbridges  are 
up,  and  no  one  can  leave  this  castle  for  three  days/ 
So  the  Chevalier  St.  George  escaped  incognito  into 
Brittany.  There,  as  a  tourist,  he  took  a  fishing  smack, 
that  took  him  out  to  sea  to  a  large  Scotch  ship,  in  which 
were  many  Scotch  lords,  who  are  with  him  in  Scot- 
land. .  .  . 

"  My  God,  how  can  they  be  merry  in  London  with  all 
the  troubles !  So  long  as  King  George  and  Chevalier 
St.  George  are  living,  the  internal  war   cannot  possibly 


150 


A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 


cease.  That  is  not  to  be  expected.  .  .  .  The  Queen  of 
England  here  is  very  stout-hearted  and  seldom  looks  sad. 
She  has  intelligence  and  firmness  and  is  very  agreeable 
in  conversation.  .  .  .  What  I  see  here,  especially  in  the 
way  of  women,  gives  me  more  vexation  and  annoyance 
than  pleasure.  .  .  . 

"  If  wishes  were  any  use,  I  would  wish  that  the  Em- 
peror might  die   without  heirs,  that   our   King  George, 
might    be    chosen  Emperor  of    the    Romans,  and  that 
young   King   James  were  in  England  making  the   best 
out  of  them  that  he  can." 


CHAPTER  VI 
Madame's  Interests  —  Peculiarities 


We  must  pass  very  rapidly  over  a  number  of  years  in 
Madame's  life.  Monsieur  became  pensive  and  sad,  and 
his  wife  writes  that  it  is  because  he  finds  that  at  sixty 
he  cannot  be  as  dissipated  as  in  his  prime.  He  is  occa- 
sionally very  disagreeable  to  her  and  once  bursts  out  with 
"You  are  old,  you  are  almost  fifty  years  old!"  She 
answers  that  she  at  any  rate  has  the  advantage  of  him,  for 
he  is  twelve  years  older  still.  On  the  whole,  however, 
the  relations  improve.  When,  in  1701,  Monsieur  was 
taken  with  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  he  was  quite  tender 
towards  her,  which  touched  her  very  much  indeed.  In 
announcing  his  death  to  her  aunt  she  declares  that  she 
is  the  most  unhappy  woman  in  the  world ;  and,  indeed, 
she  is  long  confined  to  her  bed  with  fever.  Once  she  rises, 
finds  the  box  where  he  has  kept  his  letters  and  destroys, 
unread,  a  host  of  compromising  communications  from  his 

151 


152  A  LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

wretched  companions  in  vice.     She  intends  that  the  world 
shall  never  know  the  worst. 

She  has  to  go  through  ceremonies  that  are  irksome  to 
her  in  the  extreme.  "I  had  to  receive  the  King  and 
Queen  of  England,"  she  writes,  "in  an  absurd  costume  — 
a  white  linen  brow-band,  over  that  a  hood  tied  under  the 
chin,  over  the  hood  a  coif,  over  the  coif  a  piece  of  linen 
like  a  veil  which  is  fastened  at  the  shoulders  like  a  gauze 
mantle  and  trails  to  the  length  of  seven  ells.  On  my  body 
I  had  a  long  black  cloth  coat  with  long  sleeves  reaching 
to  the  wrist,  two  handbreadths  deep  of  ermine  on  the 
sleeves,  a  black  crepe  girdle  falling  to  the  ground  in  front, 
and  a  train  to  the  ermine  skirt  likewise  seven  ells  long. 
In  this  costume  they  put  me  in  a  perfectly  black  room, 
with  even  the  floor  and  the  windows  covered,  in  a  black 
bed,  with  the  train  folded  back  so  as  to  show  the  ermine. 
A  great  chandelier  with  twelve  candles  was  lighted  in  the 
room,  and  there  were  ten  or  twelve  more  candles  on  the 
mantelpiece.  All  my  servitors,  large  and  small,  were  in 
long  mourning  mantles,  and  some  forty  or  fifty  ladies 
were  in  long  gauze  mantles.  It  was  all  perfectly  horrid. " 
Naturally  enough  her  grief  for  Monsieur  does  not  last 
long.  She  is  glad  when  the  King  allows  her  to  wear 
lighter  mourning  than  is  strictly  de  rigueur,  and  soon  is 
chafing  horribly  because  she  cannot  go  to  the  plays. 
She  permits  her  mind  to  dwell,  too,  on  Monsieur's  short- 
comings. 


A  Fountain  in  the  Labyrinth 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       153 

In  the  same  year  as  Monsieur,  King  William  of  England 
died  and  was  succeeded  by  the  childless  Queen  Anne. 
But  for  her  hollow  conversion  to  Catholicism  Madame 
would  then  have  been  the  next  heir  to  the  throne.  Her 
German  friends  seem  to  have  cherished  hopes  for  her  in 
spite  of  the  Act  of  Succession.  She  writes  to  her  half- 
sister  :  "If  the  English  were  like  other  nations,  one  might 
hope  that  they  would  remain  firm  in  their  resolution  regard- 
ing my  aunt  and  her  children;  but  it  is  a  faithless  and 
false  nation  on  which  one  can  never  rely.  I  do  not  know 
if  your  and  Frau  von  Ratsamshausen's  ideas  are  identical ; 
if  they  are  the  same,  I  can  only  answer  that  I  am  too  old 
to  think  of  anything  but  of  ending  my  days  in  peace.  No 
one  thinks  of  me,  and  I  can  take  my  sacred  oath  that  I  have 
no  other  designs  than  those  I  have  always  professed.  But 
all  the  same  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you,  dear  Louisa, 
for  wishing  me  what  you  think  would  be  for  my  good." 

Monsieur  left  debts  to  the  amount  of  seven  and  a  half 
million  francs,  and  all  of  Madame's  jewels,  even  the  pearls 
she  has  been  in  the  habit  of  wearing,  have  to  go  towards 
filling  the  chasm.  She  writes  later:  "Since  the  late  Mon- 
sieur's death  I  have  worn  only  false  pearls,  but  they  are  so 
exactly  like  the  ones  I  had  before  that  every  one  thinks 
them  the  same.  I  was  once  with  the  Queen  of  England 
at  St.  Germain,  and,  in  coughing,  the  pearls  broke  from  my 
neck.  The  Queen  threw  herself  on  the  ground  to  search 
for  the  pearls.     I  helped  her  up  and  said:  'Ah,  Madame, 


154  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

your  Majesty  must  not  take  this  trouble.  I  am  very 
munificent,  I  will  leave  my  pearls  to  your  people.'  The 
Queen  looked  at  me  and  said,  'God  pardon  me,  from  this 
discourse  I  almost  fear  that  they  are  false.'  I  answered, 
'  Madame,  you  have  said  it.'  The  Queen  had  never  noticed 
it,  nor  any  one  else." 

On  the  whole  the  King  treats  Madame  most  generously, 
and  her  income  amounts  to  450,000  francs  a  year.  There 
is  a  reconciliation  with  him,  and  even  with  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  who  pays  her  a  long  visit  and  has  an  intimate 
talk  with  her  about  her  former  shortcomings.  According 
to  Saint-Simon,  who  loves  to  tell  anything  derogatory  to 
Madame,  Madame  de  Maintenon  flaunted  in  her  enemy's 
face  a  letter  to  the  latter's  aunt  which  had  been  inter- 
cepted in  the  mail.  Madame  "nearly  died  on  the  spot." 
Further  revelations  " struck  her  motionless  as  a  statue," 
and  finally  made  her  "weep,  scream,  confess,  and  de- 
mand pardon."  Madame  de  Maintenon  looked  in  cold 
triumph  on  the  "proud  and  arrogant  German,"  allowed 
her  to  weep,  to  seize  her  hands,  and  to  grow  hoarse  with 
talking,  but  at  last  condescended  to  make  friends. 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  reconciliation.  Madame 
writes  in  1702:  "  The  King  was  so  gracious  day  before 
yesterday  as  to  summon  me  to  Madame  de  Maintenon's. 
.  .  .  Madame  de  Maintenon  invited  me  by  a  note  to  the 
comedy  of  Absalom,  to  which  I  went."  Madame  is  out- 
wardly even  too  servile  to  Madame  de  Maintenon ;  one  is 


S3 
W 
H 


O 

o 
o 


«4 

O 

» 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       155 

sorry  to  have  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  because  it  lies  in 
her  interests.  She  complains,  however,  "She  [the  Mainte- 
non]  is  always  very  polite  to  me,  and  the  King  too ;  but 
there  it  stops."  And  again  she  writes  that  she  alone  of 
the  royal  household  is  not  of  the  inner  circle  and  may 
not  go  into  the  King's  private  apartments  —  the  holy 
of  holies  she  always  calls  it.  She  writes  in  1709  that 
she  only  sees  the  King  at  ten  at  night  at  supper;  that 
after  supper  she  goes  to  the  King's  outer  room,  "  where 
I  stand  about  long  enough  to  say  a  Lord's  Prayer  and 
make  a  courtesy.  The  King  goes  into  his  cabinet  with 
the  princes  and  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  and  I  to  my 
room,  where  I  give  my  doggies  biscuit,  wind  my  clocks, 
look  at  my  rare  stones,  change  my  rings,  and  then,  to 
bed."  Her  doggies,  she  declares,  are  the  most  faithful 
friends  she  has  in  France.  Six  of  them  sleep  in  her  bed  at 
night.  She  has  just  heard  of  a  new  invention  called  eider- 
down quilts.  "I  never  in  my  life  heard  of  an  eider-down 
quilt,"  she  writes.  "What  keeps  me  right  warm  in  bed 
are  six  little  doggies  which  lie  round  me.  No  quilt  is 
as  warm  as  the  good  doggies." 

She  has  invented  beautiful  names  for  them:  Titi, 
Charmille,  Boabdille,  and  the  like.  She  has  one  called 
Candace  nee  Robe,  "She  is  called  nee  Robe,"  she  writes, 
"because  her  mother,  Charmille,  gave  birth  to  her  on  my 
velvet  skirt  as  I  was  talking  to  Madame  la  Princesse  [of 
Conde]  on  a  divan.     Madame  la  Princesse  suddenly  said  to 


156  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

me,  'Your  dog  is  acting  queerly,'  and  putting  my  hand 
behind  me,  I  found  the  little  animal  all  wrapped  up  in  its 
skin  and  still  on  my  dress." 

Madame  has  grown  very  stout  by  this  time,  —  with  the  fat 
all  in  the  wrong  places,  she  explains,  —  and  she  declares  that 
when  she  wears  hanging  sleeves,  she  looks  for  all  the  world 
like  an  Indian  pagoda.  She  ' '  has  to  laugh  about  the  pagoda 
every  time  she  passes  a  mirror."  But  she  is  not  always 
laughing;  and  perhaps  this  letter  will  show  a  side  of  her 
character  that  my  readers  have  little  suspected.  It  is  from 
Versailles,  where  her  room  looked  directly  on  to  the  terrace 
and  across  to  the  forest :  "  It  is  here  the  finest  weather  in  the 
world.  Last  night  I  listened  at  a  window  to  the  singing 
of  the  nightingales  until  half-past  twelve.  I  had  all  the 
windows  open;  there  was  not  a  breeze  stirring.  Every- 
thing is  now  green,  and  a  lovely  spring  with  clear  skies  has 
come  upon  us.  It  reminds  me  of  what  I  heard  in  my 
youth  in  Heidelberg  in  a  play  in  which  my  dead  brother 
acted,  '0  Spring,  youth  of  the  year,  beautiful  mother  of 
the  flowers,  of  the  green  herbs,  and  of  fresh  love,  you  in- 
deed return;  but  with  you  does  not  return  the  lovely 
joyous  springtime  of  my  youth.' " 

On  another  occasion  she  wrote  in  a  similar  moralizing 
strain:  "It  seems  to  me  that  we  are  our  Lord  God's 
marionettes;  for  we  are  made  to  go  to  and  fro  and 
play  all  sorts  of  personages,  and  then  all  at  once  we 
fall  and  the  play  is  ended.     The  Punchinello  is  Death, 


Thk  Electress  Sophia 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES        157 

who  gives  each  his  final  blow  and  thrusts  him  off  the 
stage." 

The  reader  must  have  realized  by  this  time  what  a  really 
rare  talent  Madame  had  for  letter-writing.  Her  aunt  in 
Hanover  showed  some  of  the  letters  to  the  great  Leib- 
nitz, who  evidently  was  very  complimentary  about  them. 
Madame  writes:  "I  am  glad  Monsieur  Leibnitz  has 
never  seen  me,  or  he  would  soon  lose  his  high  opinion 
of  me  and  would  find,  as  the  precieuses  say,  'that  I 
have  the  form  very  much  hidden  in  the  'matter.'  But 
it  does  give  me  pleasure  that  so  sensible  a  man  as  he 
should  consider  that  I  have  lumieres.  It  makes  me 
right  proud." 

There  is  indeed  a  spontaneity  about  the  letters  that  is  ir- 
resistible,—  especially  when  one  considers  that  she  usually 
carried  on  conversation  while  she  was  writing.  "I  have 
had  to  accustom  myself  to  talk  to  people  when  I  am 
writing,"  she  says,  "for  here  one  makes  enemies  if  one  does 
not  talk  to  people.  But  there  is  one  good  thing  about  it : 
it  is  all  the  same  what  one  says  to  them ;  if  they  are  only 
spoken  to,  they  are  satisfied."  She  would  so  much  rather 
be  alone!  "Darling  Louisa,"  she  once  writes,  "I  believe 
the  devil  in  hell  has  escaped  from  his  chains  to  drive  me 
crazy.  .  .  .  When  I  was  just  about  to  answer  you  and 
Mademoiselle  de  Malauze,  the  devil  au  contretemps  sent 
half  a  dozen  duchesses,  who  made  me  lose  all  my  time." 
And  again:  "There  come  a  lot  of  princes.  .  .  .     My  God, 


158  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

how  often  one  is  interrupted!"  Her  regular  habit  was 
to  take  the  last  letter  of  her  correspondent  and  answer 
it  paragraph  by  paragraph;  but  a  name  or  a  statement 
will  start  her  off  on  reminiscences.  Some  one  mentions 
Leibnitz,  for  instance.  That  reminds  her  of  Descartes, 
and  we  have  the  following :  "  Descartes 's  idea  of  the  watch 
seems  to  me  in  very  bad  taste.  Once  I  embarrassed  a 
bishop  who  is  entirely  of  Descartes's  opinion.  The 
bishop  is  naturally  jealous,  and  I  said  to  him:  'When 
you  are  jealous,  are  you  machine  or  man?  For  I  know 
nothing  more  jealous  than  you  except  my  dogs,  and  should 
like  to  know  if  it  is  a  movement  of  the  machine  or  a  pas- 
sion of  the  soul.'  He  got  angry  and  went  away  without 
giving  me  an  answer." 

Here  is  a  good  specimen  of  her  casual  style :  "I  am  sorry 
you  were  so  hasty  and  had  two  sound  teeth  drawn.  That 
is  just  the  way  to  lose  them  all,  one  after  the  other;  for  if 
you  have  teeth  drawn,  it  is  sure  to  send  the  humors  over  to 
the  other  teeth,  and  one  is  lucky  if  one  does  not  lose  them 
all.  Our  King  lost  all  his  that  way.  Only  two  of  mine  are 
gone;  they  broke  in  my  mouth.  Another,  front  one,  is 
broken,  and  all  the  rest  are  frightfully  gray  and  yellow, 
but  they  have  not  hurt  me  so  far  —  I'm  afraid  I'm  not 
clever !  I  read  your  last  letter  so  hastily  as  not  to  notice 
that  what  you,  dear  Louisa,  had  had  drawn,  and  what  wor- 
ried me  so,  were  blisters  and  not  teeth.  I  have  to  laugh  at 
my  own  foolishness.     One  need  not  make  excuses  when 


MADAME'S  INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       159 

talking  of  teeth,  for  there  is  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of 
about  them." 

Nothing  worries  her,  least  of  all  her  dogs.  "Titi  has 
just  jumped  on  the  table  and  blotted  out  what  I  had 
written,"  she  writes  —  but  continues  on  the  same  page. 

It  is  in  her  letters  to  the  Electress  that  Madame  is  most 
frank  and  outspoken,  particularly  in  letters  she  is  able  to 
forward  to  her  by  private  hand.  For,  as  I  have  said,  there 
was  a  regular  department  of  the  government  known  as  the 
cabinet  noir  for  tampering  with  private  letters  in  the  post, 
and  Madame,  according  to  her  own  account  at  least,  was 
under  constant  surveillance — possibly  because  of  her  Prot- 
estant sympathies. 

"That  the  letters  are  well  sealed  signifies  nothing," 
Madame  once  writes.  "They  have  a  mixture  of  quick- 
silver and  other  stuff ;  this  they  press  on  the  seal,  taking 
its  exact  size.  When  the  impression  is  taken  and  they  ex- 
pose it  to  the  air,  it  gets  very  hard,  and  they  can  use  it  for 
sealing  again.  From  the  letter  they  break  off  all  the  wax, 
noticing  whether  it  is  black  or  red.  When  they  have  read 
and  copied  the  letter,  they  seal  it  again  neatly.  No  one 
can  tell  that  it  has  been  opened.  My  son  can  make  the 
amalgam;  I  use  it  just  for  fun."  Once,  she  declares,  in 
reenclosing  her  letters  they  have  put  into  one  of  them 
sheets  that  belonged  in  another.  She  frequently  writes 
little  messages  to  the  "gentlemen  who  open  my  letters," 
hopes  that  they  will  translate  her  German  better  next 


160  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

time,  declares  they  had  better  not  get  her  angry,  and  hurls 
dire  threats  at  them.  "Be  it  known  to  the  inquisitive  and 
curious,  that  I  am  not  a  bit  afraid  of  them,"  she  once  inter- 
polates; ".  .  .  that  is  what  is  called  an  avis  au  lecteur." 
"It  is  pure  arrogance  and  malice,"  she  writes  late  in  life, 
"that  the  post  goes  so  irregularly;  for  the  letters  never 
need  take  more  than  a  week  to  arrive.  But  then  there 
would  be  no  provision  for  inquisitive  curiosity.  They 
ought  by  rights  to  be  tired  of  my  letters  after  reading 
them  constantly  for  forty-nine  years.  I  suspect  it  is  the 
fault  neither  of  Prince  Taxis  nor  of  Baron  Weltz  that  my 
letters  go  wrong,  but  of  Torcy  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Cambray,  —  not  loving  me  especially,  they  try  to  find 
something  in  my  letters  that  will  get  me  into  trouble." 

After  the  Electress  Sophia's  death  in  1714  it  is  Louisa, 
Madame's  half-sister,  who  falls  heir  to  the  chief  outpourings 
of  her  heart.  "Of  all  my  correspondents,"  Madame  writes 
to  the  latter,  "  there  is  only  one  in  whose  letters  I  could  take 
pleasure,  and  she  is  no  more.  I  mean  our  dear  Electress. 
My  daughter's  letters  are  agreeable  to  me,  but  they  are 
never  gay ;  for  she  is  always  either  ill,  enceinte,  or  has  some 
other  complaint  to  make.  The  Queen  of  Sicily,  whom  I 
love,  too,  as  though  she  were  my  own  child,  is  still  full  of 
grief  over  the  loss  of  her  eldest  prince.  The  letters  of  the 
Queen  of  Spain  at  Bayonne,  consist  of  nothing  but  compli- 
ments and  commissions.  .  .  .  She  seems  a  good  creature, 
but  I  wish  she  would  not  use  childish  words  to  which  I  am 


A  Fountain  in  thk  Lahyrinth 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       161 

not  accustomed,  like  Herzensmamachen,  'little  treasure/ 
'little  heart.'  I  shall  never  be  able  to  get  used  to  them, 
so  these  letters  can  give  me  no  pleasure  either:  so  I  tell 
you  truly,  dear  Louisa,  your  letters  are  among  the  most 
agreeable  I  can  now  receive."  How  large  her  correspond- 
ence was  may  be  gathered  from  the  following:  " To-day, 
Sunday,  for  example,  I  have  to  write  to  you  and  to  Lor- 
raine ;  Mondays  to  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  the  Queen  of 
Spain  in  Bayonne,  and  the  Queen  of  Sicily;  Tuesdays 
I  write  again  to  Lorraine  and  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  to 
whom  I  write  twenty  sheets  at  the  very  least  —  usually 
twenty-four  or  even  twenty-eight  like  these  [her  letters 
are  on  especially  large  gold-rimmed  paper] ;  Thursdays  I 
write  to  you,  dear  Louisa,  to  Monsieur  Harling,  and  to 
Baron  Goertz ;  Fridays  I  have  again  the  English  and  the 
Lorraine  posts." 

"Dear  Louisa/'  a  plain,  pious  old  maid  who  once 
writes  to  know  if  it  is  proper  to  mention  one's  foot  in 
company,  was  very  much  honored  by  the  devotion  Ma- 
dame showed  her,  and  would  try  to  explain  how  unat- 
tractive she  was  and  how  little  she  could  do  in  return. 
Madame  wrote  to  her  once :  "Do  you  think  I  want  merely 
Venuses  or  beautiful  Helens,  and  that  I  have  none  about 
me  but  dancers  and  acrobats  ?  Your  immoderate  humility 
makes  me  laugh.  Why  should  I  not  be  fond  of  you  ?  Are 
we  not  closely  enough  related  for  that  ?  Ah !  now  the 
reason  strikes  me  —  your  debauchery  and  godless  life  ! 


162  A    LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

I  did  not  think  of  it  at  first,  but  that  must  be  it !  But 
those  one  sees  here,  particularly  the  princesses  of  the  blood, 
are  so  virtuous  that  they  have  virtue  to  spare,  dear 
Louisa,  —  more  than  enough  to  cover  your  faults.  All 
except  Madame  la  Princesse,  —  she  is  as  godless  and  de- 
bauched as  yourself." 

The  letters  are  avowedly  for  the  purpose  of  entertaining, 
which  fact  must  be  taken  into  consideration  in  judging 
Madame's  character.  She  tells  after  the  Electress's  death 
how  she  had  made  a  practice  of  collecting  everything  she 
could  for  her  amusement ;  and  as  the  Electress  herself  was 
daring,  witty,  and  prof ane,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
many  of  Madame's  worst  utterances  were  for  the  express 
purpose  of  outdoing  her.  The  tone  of  the  letters  varies 
very  much  according  to  the  correspondent.  With  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  wife  of  George  II,  she  confines  herself 
mainly  to  harmless  reminiscences,  for  Louisa  has  sent  her 
an  urgent  warning  not  to  be  too  confidential. 

Madame's  topics  vary  all  the  way  from  discussions  on 
the  foundations  of  religious  belief  to  a  description  of  the 
Duchesse  de  Bourgogne's  latest  dress.  The  notes  on  reli- 
gion are  particularly  edifying.  She  believes  in  another 
world:  "I  think  that  even  were  it  not  true  that  there  is 
another  life  after  this,  one  would  do  well  to  imagine  it,  if 
only  for  one's  own  consolation.  It  is  really  too  horrible  to 
be  nothing  but  food  for  the  worms."  But  she  does  not  ex- 
pect to  meet  again  those  whom  she  has  known  here  below : 


The  Duchks.sk   i>k  Boukuogne's  LATEST  DBE8S 


MADAME'S  INTERESTS  —  PECULIARITIES       163 

"I  conclude  that  that  world  will  be  different  and  that  one 
will  think  of  nothing  but  our  Lord  God  and  of  praising 
Him.  ...  So  my  own  death  cannot  console  me  for  those 
I  have  lost ;  it  can  only  console  me  for  leaving  all  that  is 
wicked  and  vexatious  here  and  enjoying  eternal  rest."  In 
this  connection  she  writes  again  :  "As  to  our  knowing  each 
other  in  the  other  world,  there  we  are  of  different  opinions, 
dear  Louisa.  Were  that  the  case,  an  entirely  new  miracle 
would  have  to  happen.  When  we  have  been  twenty  or 
thirty  years  without  seeing  our  best  friends,  we  scarcely 
know  them  again,  let  alone  when  one  has  been  dead  so 
many  hundred  years.  That  is  my  opinion.  Why  should 
our  Lord  God  make  nothing  perfect  except  what  is  in  our 
shape  ?  .  .  .  Is  it  not  favor  enough  that  He  should  have 
given  us  His  only  Son  to  free  us  from  everlasting  damna- 
tion?    What  more  can  we  ask  of  Him?  " 

Among  her  religious  duties  Madame  did  not  reckon  the 
kind  of  devoutness  she  saw  about  her.  She  writes :  "  I 
believe  Monsieur  is  '  devout '  so  as  to  be  like  Henry  III  in 
everything.  If  that  is  the  way  to  heaven,  I  shall  certainly 
not  get  in.  Unless  I  have  to  hear  grand  mass,  I  am  quickly 
through  with  our  service,  for  I  have  a  chaplain  who  gets 
through  the  mass  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  That  is  the 
right  way  for  me.  ...  In  'devoutness/  as  I  see  it  here, 
every  one  follows  his  own  natural  bent.  Those  who  are 
fond  of  talking  incline  to  pray  a  great  deal ;  those  who 
are  generous  wish  always  to  give  alms;   those  who  are 


164  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

easily  angered  and  choleric  always  get  excited  and  want 
to  kill  everything;  those,  on  the  other  hand,  who  are 
merry  by  nature  think  that  they  are  doing  God  a  service 
by  rejoicing  over  everything  and  being  angered  at 
nothing :  in  short,  he  who  gives  himself  over  to  devout- 
ness  sets  himself  up  as  the  touchstone  to  show  his  true 
character.  But  those  that  I  find  worst  of  all  are  the  ones 
who  have  ambition  in  their  heads  and  wish  to  rule  every- 
thing under  the  mantle  of  devoutness,  giving  out  that 
they  are  doing  God  a  great  service  by  bringing  every- 
thing into  their  power.  The  easiest  to  get  along  with 
are  the  ones  that  have  been  very  much  in  love;  for 
they,  if  they  once  take  God  for  an  object,  think  of  nothing 
else  but  of  saying  tender  things  to  our  Lord  God  and  leave 
other  people  in  peace." 

In  another  letter  Madame  tells  us  in  just  what  her  own 
" devoutness"  consists :  "  I  am  not  so  fortunate  as  to  have 
a  faith  strong  enough  to  move  mountains,  and  I  am  too 
straightforward  to  pretend  to  be  devout  without  being  so. 
So  I  content  myself  with  not  sinning  too  badly  against  the 
commandments  and  in  not  harming  my  neighbor.  I  ad- 
mire God  Almighty  without  understanding  Him.  I  praise 
Him  morning  and  evening,  let  Him  continue  to  rule  as  He 
pleases,  and  submit  to  His  will.  For  apart  from  it  I  well 
know  that  nothing  can  happen.  Now  your  Grace  knows 
all  my  '  devoutness.'  .  .  ." 

In  doctrine  Madame  was  a  Calvinist,  as  was  natural  for 


MADAME'S  INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       165 

one  brought  up  in  the  Palatinate.  But  she  contends  that 
neither  Luther  nor  Calvin  should  have  seceded  from  the 
church.  She  is  a  firm  believer  in  predestination.  "I  am 
heartily  glad,"  she  writes,  "that  your  Grace  is  of  my 
opinion  and  believe  in  a  destiny  and  sequence  in  everything. 
One  sees  it  so  plainly  in  a  hundred  matters  that  I  cannot 
comprehend  how  one  can  doubt  it.  However  strong  may 
be  our  love  of  self,  which  alone  can  make  us  think  that  our 
wills  are  free,  we  nevertheless  so  often  find  in  our  lives 
that  something  besides  our  will  impels  and  guides  us 
that  beyond  a  doubt  we  do  nothing  but  what  was  long 
since  prescribed  for  us,  and  one  thing  brings  about 
another." 

There  was  no  asceticism  in  her  creed.  "God  pardon 
me,"  she  writes,  "but  on  account  of  my  sins  I  have  never 
in  my  life  been  able  to  weep."  And  again:  "There  are 
many  places  in  the  Bible  that  say  that  one  must  mortify 
the  body ;  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  are  full  of  it. 
But  I  think  it  is  enough  to  bear  patiently  the  evil  that 
comes  to  us  from  the  hand  of  God  without  torturing  our- 
selves. I  never  could  endure  La  Trappe.  What  did  it 
signify  to  all  those  poor  people  that  the  Abbe  de  Ranee  lost 
his  mistress,  Madame  de  Montbazon,  and  was  in  despair? 
For  that  made  him  think  out  La  Trappe,  and  nothing  else 
in  the  world.  I  don't  consider  that  devoutness  in  the  least. 
But  apropos  !  I  forget  that  I  had  to  promise  my  confessor 
not  to  speak  of  this." 


166  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

She  considered  the  Inquisition  "a  perfectly  devilish 
thing"  and  hated  the  Dominicans  like  monsters:  "They 
seem  to  me  like  executioners  ...  I  do  not  believe  that 
it  is  permitted  to  any  one  to  say,  'These  shall  be  saved, 
and  those  damned/  " 

Madame,  besides  going  to  chapel,  read  three  chapters  of 
the  Bible  a  day,  and  if  she  missed  one  or  more  days,  made 
it  up  later.  She  read  critically,  too,  in  spite  of  her  own 
assertions  to  the  contrary.  "I  take  in  and  understand 
the  Bible  still  less  than  your  Grace,"  she  writes,  "but 
I  like  to  read  the  Bible,  especially  the  Old  Testament. 
What  I  least  like  to  read  in  the  Bible  are  the  Epistles; 
I  find  them  confused  and  tiresome.  .  .  .  Titi  has  just 
jumped  on  my  paper  and  made  me  make  two  blots.  I 
humbly  beg  pardon,  but  I  hope  your  Grace  will  dispense 
me  from  copying  this  letter  and  graciously  excuse  Titi's 
impertinence,  for  I  have  a  great  deal  to  write  to-day. 
I  must  still  write  letters  to  Spain,  England,  and  Lor- 
raine, and  also  two  or  three  to  Paris." 

Here  are  some  of  her  criticisms  of  the  Bible:  "If  we 
take  the  devil  as  he  appears  in  Job,  it  seems  as  if  he  were 
the  Lord  God's  buffoon  and  not  hated  of  God,  for  he  con- 
verses in  a  friendly  manner  with  Him.  But  this  is  opposed 
to  what  the  clergy  say,  that  the  devil's  greatest  torture  is 
in  being  condemned  never  to  see  Almighty  God.  They 
ought  to  arrange  it  so  as  to  accord  better  with  the  Holy 
Gospel.  ...    To  tell  the  truth,  the  dialogue  between  our 


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MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       167 

Lord  God,  and  the  devil  is  a  little  sujet  a  caution,  as  they 
say  here.  .  .  . 

"  I  cannot  conceive  how  one  could  imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment that  the  Song  of  Solomon  was  made  for  purposes  of 
devotion ;  especially  as  it  comes  from  a  king  who  was  so 
fond  of  women.  ...  I  often  wonder  that,  in  our  Lord 
Christ's  time,  they  were  so  very  little  curious.  That  they 
did  not  question  our  Lord  Christ  much  is  perfectly  right ; 
respect  did  not  allow  it.  But  Lazarus,  to  whom  no  respect 
was  due  —  him  they  ought  to  have  thoroughly  examined 
about  the  other  world.  Had  my  brother  risen  from  the 
dead,  I  certainly  should  not  have  failed  to  question  him, 
and  that  simply  with  the  intention  of  better  serving  God 
Almighty." 

Of  superstition  in  others  Madame  was  very  tolerant. 
"Here  we  have  nothing  but  rain,  thunder,  and  lightning," 
she  writes ;  "that  makes  those  who  believe  in  witches  think 
wizards  are  hiding  in  the  clouds,  which  I  don't  believe  at 
all ;  but  I  like  to  hear  the  stories  about  it.  .  .  .  If  those 
who  are  considered  witches  are  mixed  up  with  poison  or 
sacrilege,  they  cannot  be  too  severely  punished,  and  I 
should  have  no  scruples  about  burning  such  people.  But 
they  should  not  be  burned  for  riding  through  chimneys 
on  brooms  or  pitchforks,  for  hiding  in  the  winds,  turning 
themselves  into  cats,  or  other  such  incredible  things." 

Some  of  Madame's  ideas  on  medicine,  as  expressed  in 
her  letters,  seem  to  us  primitive  enough  to-day.      "The 


168  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

fellow  who  cut  my  hair,"  she  once  writes,  "was  so  slow 
that  it  took  him  an  hour  and  a  half;  and  he  held  the 
hot  curling  iron  so  long  on  my  head  that  I  think  it 
melted  some  of  the  humors,  which  fell  into  my  throat, 
and  at  once  caused  coughing  and  cold."  Of  the  exterior 
of  the  doctors  she  gives  an  interesting  description:  "The 
doctors  here  do  not  go  in  gowns  and  turn-down  collars 
as  in  Germany,  but  wear  neck-cloths  and  gray  suits  with 
gold  buttons  and  button-holes,  and  fine  large  wigs.  One 
would  take  Monsieur  Teray,  who  is  not  old  and  has  a 
good  figure,  for  a  colonel  rather  than  a  doctor." 

She  has  her  own  little  remedies,  among  them  an  Eng- 
lish one  called  "Milady  Kent  powder."  With  this, 
the  chief  effect  of  which  seems  to  have  been  to  put  the 
patient  in  a  perspiration,  she  declares  she  has  saved 
many  lives.  Here  is  a  remedy  that  she  gives  for  a 
bloodshot  eye:  "Put  sugar  candy  in  white  rose-water, 
and  then  administer  it  to  the  eye.  However  bloodshot 
it  may  be,  it  will  be  all  right  in  a  few  days."  This  re- 
sult, one  imagines,  time  might  have  achieved  without 
the  remedy;  but  at  any  rate,  as  she  suggests  herself, 
it  can  do  no  harm.  The  same  is  true  of  the  following 
recommendation:  "I  will  teach  you  a  little  art  that  has 
been  taught  me  here,  and  that  is  perfectly  certain,  for 
not  getting  a  swollen  finger.  If  you  prick  your  finger 
another  time,  cut  the  nail  a  little  away  from  the  finger 
that  was  pricked,  and  put  the  finger,  where  it  was  pricked, 


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MADAME'S  INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       169 

behind  the  ear  and  rub  it  a  little.  I  assure  you  no  swell- 
ing will  ever  result  from  it." 

She  writes  of  another  remedy:  "I  should  not  object 
to  the  Nuremburg  plaster  that  makes  the  back  itch; 
for  I  find  scratching  the  back  such  a  great  pleasure  that 
many  things  which  are  considered  pleasures  do  not  come 
up  to  it." 

Madame  lived  long  enough  to  become  a  convert  to 
inoculation  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  her  own  body- 
physician  did  not  consider  the  remedy  a  sure  one,  and 
said  that  he  did  not  comprehend  it:  "But  between  our- 
selves doctors  are  not  to  be  believed  in  such  matters; 
for  what  does  not  fit  into  their  scheme  they  never  ad- 
mire and  think  it  a  sort  of  derogation  to  themselves." 

But  Madame's  real  contribution  to  medicine  was  a 
prophecy  that  has  since  come  gloriously  true.  "An  eel 
must  have  a  thinner  skin  than  other  beasts,"  she  writes 
in  1697,  "because  with  the  microscope  one  can  see  the 
circulation  of  their  blood.  It  is  a  fine  art  they  have 
discovered  with  these  glasses.  /  think  it  will  make  the 
doctors  more  learned." 

Madame  knew  all  about  microscopes.  "We  had  a 
man  here  called  Dalance,"  she  writes  in  this  same  year; 
"he  has  made  microscopes  in  which,  on  a  knife-point 
covered  with  water  and  pepper,  he  showed  me  a  whole 
lake  full  of  soles  and  in  the  vinegar  were  long  snakes. 
This  same  Dalance  is  no   longer   in   this   country;   he 


170  A  LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

is  probably  in  Holland  now,  and  making  just  such  glasses, 
which  he  has  doubtless  improved  so  that  one  can  see,  and 
still  better,  things  like  starfish  and  mussels.  It  seems 
to  me  we  know  too  much  and  too  little  to  be  perfectly 
happy ;  one  knows  enough  to  wish  to  know  more,  and  not 
enough  to  rest  content." 

Madame  had  her  own  microscopes,  —  she  once  sent 
for  one  of  the  kind  "in  which  a  louse  looks  so  big,"  — 
and  conducted  her  own  experiments.  She  writes  in 
December,  1718:  "The  same  thing  was  the  matter  with 
your  coach  and  chaise  as  with  my  furs  and  sables :  when 
they  went  to  look  at  them  they  were  full  of  moths.  But 
as  the  proverb  says,  a  quelque  chose  malheur  est  bon;  for 
it  diverted  me  very  much  to  put  the  worms  under  my 
microscope.  They  make  the  microscopes  ver}r  nicely 
indeed  here ;  it  amuses  me.     I  have  them  of  every  kind." 

She  was  interested  in  other  inventions,  too.  She 
writes  in  this  same  year:  "In  these  six  lines  I  have 
already  been  three  times  interrupted.  .  .  .  The  third 
interruption  was  a  man  who  makes  things  for  mathe- 
matics —  a  gold  compass,  rules,  and  pencil,  and  a  new 
invention  by  which  one  can  tell  how  many  steps  one  has 
taken  in  walking.  It  is  like  a  watch,  that  is  fastened  to 
the  waist  and  to  the  knee.  When  one  walks,  every 
tenth  step  is  marked  in  a  round  circle ;  when  one  reaches 
100,  the  second  circle  marks  it;  1000,  the  third  circle. 
So  one  can  always  know,  without  counting,  how  many 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       171 

steps  one  has  taken,  which  is  said  to  be  very  convenient 
in  sieges.  It  is  for  my  little  grandson  who  is  now  learn- 
ing mathematics.  I  will  give  it  to  him,  with  a  little 
tablet,  at  New  Year's." 

One  of  Madame's  great  interests  was  her  collection  of 
medals.  She  writes  in  1709  :  "I  have  every  reason  to  be 
grateful  for  the  fine  medals.  Your  Grace  cannot  imagine 
what  an  amusement  it  is  for  me;  I  spend  whole  days 
over  them,  and  over  my  antique  medals.  Last  Mon- 
day with  the  King's  New  Year's  present  I  bought  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  them.  I  have  now  a  cabinet  of 
gold  medals,  a  perfect  sequence  of  all  the  emperors  from 
Julius  Caesar  to  Heraclius.  Not  one  is  missing.  Among 
these  are  some  very  rare  specimens,  which  even  the 
King  does  not  possess.  I  got  them  all  very  cheap  — 
two  hundred  and  sixty  of  them  merely  for  the  value  of 
their  weight.  I  have  now  in  all  four  hundred  and  ten 
gold  medals.  It  gives  me  great  amusement  to  hear  the 
curious  and  the  learned  dispute  over  them,  and  I  have 
all  the  histories  on  the  backs  of  them  related  to  me.  It 
is  right  diverting."  And  again  in  1720:  "There  are  few 
antique  medals  that  I  do  not  possess  already ;  for  I  have 
nearly  nine  hundred  of  them.  I  began  with  only  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty,  which  I  bought  from  Madame  de  Verrue, 
who  had  stolen  them  from  the  then  Duke  of  Savoy.  I  at 
once  wrote  about  it  to  the  present  Queen  of  Sardigna  and 
offered  to  send  them  back  to  the  King.     But  the  box 


172  A  LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

was  already  mutilated  —  she  had  sold  most  of  them.  The 
Queen  wrote  she  was  heartily  glad  that  the  few  that 
were  left  had  come  into  my  hands,  and  that  I  should 
keep  them.  I  got  them  very  cheap,  only  according  to 
their  weight,  and  yet  there  were  some  quite  rare  ones 
among  them."  Madame  had  also  a  collection  of  en- 
gravings. 

There  are  a  hundred  different  subjects  with  regard 
to  which,  if  space  only  permitted,  one  would  like  to 
quote  Madame.  One  must  not,  indeed,  expect  any  light 
on  constitutional  or  legal  matters;  she  says  herself 
that  she  might  just  as  well  try  to  walk  up  a  perpen- 
dicular wall  as  endeavor  to  understand  them.  Her 
observations  on  the  French  in  general  are  keen  and 
not  too  flattering:  "The  French  can  talk  well  about 
gratitude,  yet  nothing  is  rarer  than  to  see  them  practise 
it.  .  .  .  The  populace  is  better  and  more  reasonable 
than  are  those  of  good  birth.  .  .  .  French  people  scorn 
one  if  one  deals  too  gently  with  them;  to  keep  them 
quite  in  order  there  must  be  fear  and  hope.  ...  If 
the  French  wish  something  from  you,  they  at  once  make 
gods  of  you  and  laud  you  to  the  skies;  when  they  have 
nothing  more  to  expect,  they  say  the  worst  of  you  and 
show  up  your  smallest  faults.  ...  It  is  lost  labor 
here  to  try  and  give  people  pleasure;  if,  for  instance, 
you  give  some  one  a  finger,  he  is  not  content  until  he 
has    the   whole   hand.     It    is    always    that    way;    they 


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MADAME'S  INTERESTS  — PECULIARITIES       173 

always  show  one  ingratitude  for  not  giving  them  the 
whole.  .  .  .  All  Frenchmen,  whoever  they  are,  have 
this  about  them :  they  always  think  one  must  be  charmed 
with  them.  I  have  known  some  who  were  ugly  as  the 
devil,  and  who  yet  thought  that  they  were  pleasing.  I 
have  often  laughed  over  it  heartily.  ...  I  have  no 
ambition,  no  wish  to  govern  anything  and  should  find 
no  satisfaction  in  doing  so.  Yet  that  is  the  one  affair 
of  French  women.  No  kitchenmaid  here  doubts  but 
that  she  has  intelligence  enough  to  run  the  whole  king- 
dom, and  that  they  are  doing  her  the  greatest  wrong  in 
the  world  in  not  asking  her  advice.  That  has  put  me 
out  of  conceit  with  all  ambition,  for  I  find  something  so 
absurd  in  it  that  it  fills  me  with  horror.  ...  It  is  im- 
possible to  believe  that  there  is  a  French  woman  who 
does  not  put  French  manners  above  everything  and  try 
to  meddle  with  everything.  This  goes  all  the  way  from 
the  first  lady  to  the  kitchenmaid." 

With  regard  to  fashions  Madame  has  much  to  say, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  those  days  England 
seems  to  have  given  the  tone  to  France,  and  Paris  to 
Versailles.  Madame  writes  in  1715:  "Advise  me  what 
to  send  the  Princess  of  Wales  that  would  be  agreeable 
to  her.  The  bagatelles  one  has  here,  such  as  little 
boxes,  watches,  etc.,  are  to  be  found  prettier  and  better 
in  England.  I  can  send  no  more  fashions,  because  in 
England  they  have  their  own,  which  are  now  being  fol- 


174  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD   REGIME 

lowed  here;  so  I  am  very  much  troubled  as  to  what  to 
send  the  dear  Princess."  And  again  in  the  following 
year,  "The  misfortune  is  that  in  England  they  have 
everything  better  than  we  have  here." 

Of  the  fashions  Madame  writes  in  1706:  "All  the 
women  in  Paris  wear  such  low-necked  dresses  that  it 
disgusts  me.  .  .  .  No  one  has  ever  seen  it  so  bad.  They 
all  look  as  if  they  had  come  out  of  the  mad-house.  If 
they  took  the  greatest  pains  to  make  themselves  repul- 
sive, they  could  not  look  worse.  I  do  not  wonder  that 
the  men  despise  the  women.  .  .  .  The  women,  at  present, 
are  quite  too  despicable  with  their  dress,  their  drinking, 
and  their  snuff,  which  makes  them  smell  horribly.  .  .  . 
At  court  the  fashions  are  not  yet  as  crazy  as  in  Paris, 
where  they  get  themselves  up  as  though  they  had  es- 
caped from  a  lunatic  asylum.  They  are  bad  enough  to 
frighten  children  to  bed  with." 

Madame  has  in  general  an  antipathy  to  her  own  sex. 
"Girls  are  a  weed,"  she  writes,  "that  it  is  difficult  to  root 
out,  and  it  always  seems  to  me  you  find  ten  women 
folk  to  one  man.  .  .  .  My  God,  Louisa  dear,  a  woman's 
position  is  so  unhappy  that  one  should  easily  be  con- 
soled when  a  little  girl  dies:  it  saves  there  being  one 
more  unhappy  creature  in  the  world."  She  declares 
that  it  would  have  been  fortunate  had  her  son  lost  his 
eldest  three  daughters  in  their  youth. 

Of   the   snuff  habit  Madame  writes   more   in    detail: 


MADAME'S   INTERESTS  —  PECULIARITIES       175 

"Nothing  in  the  world  is  more  disgusting  to  me  than 
taking  snuff;  it  makes  ugly  noses,  makes  one  talk 
through  the  nose,  and  smell  horribly.  .  .  .  Our  King, 
not  to  compare  us,  likes  it  just  as  little;  yet  all  his 
children  and  grandchildren  take  it,  in  spite  of  knowing 
that  it  displeases  the  King.  It  is  better  to  take  none 
than  a  little;  for  he  who  takes  a  little  soon  comes  to 
take  much.  They  call  it  the  herbe  enchantee  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  so  attractive  to  those  who  take  it  that 
they  cannot  get  along  without  it.  So  look  out  for  your- 
self, dear  Louisa." 

The  reader  probably  does  not  care  to  hear  at  any 
great  length  how  diamond  buckles  are  worn  on  the 
men's  hats  to  fasten  the  feathers,  but  aigrettes  with 
diamonds  are  not  worn  on  the  hats;  how  the  fashion 
with  regard  to  strings  of  pearls  has  changed,  and  they 
now  twine  them  twice  around  the  neck,  cross  them  on 
the  breast,  and  let  two  great  tassels  of  pearls  hang  to 
the  stomach,  the  tops  of  the  tassels  being  made  of  larger 
pearls  than  the  rest;  how  diamond  crosses  are  worn  not 
for  devoutness,  but  for  show;  how  Madame  wears  black 
silk  aprons  with  two  pockets  when  she  is  en  manteau,  but 
wears  none  when  she  is  en  grand  habit;  how  ladies  ride 
astraddle  in  the  provinces,  but  how  the  King  himself 
says  they  have  never  ridden  that  way  at  court;  how 
the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  has  received  a  dress  from 
Spain  of  an  entirely  new  pattern,  with  iron  hoops  in  the 


176  A  LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

underskirt  which  "grow  narrower  and  narrower,  making 
the  waist  look  very  small." 

But  there  is  one  matter  to  which,  in  concluding  this 
part  of  our  subject,  it  may  be  as  well  to  refer.  Madame 
writes,  on  October  10,  1711:  "  When  some  one  is  put 
into  the  Bastile,  no  one  knows  of  it  either  at  court  or  in 
the  city.  Stranger  yet:  a  man  was  for  years  in  the 
Bastile  who  died  there  with  a  mask  on.  He  had  al- 
ways two  musketeers  on  each  side,  to  shoot  him  dead 
in  case  he  took  off  the  mask.  He  ate  and  slept  with 
his  mask  on.  He  must  have  been  somebody,  for  other- 
wise they  treated  him  very  well.  He  was  well  lodged 
and  given  everything  he  desired.  He  took  the  com- 
munion masked,  was  very  devout,  and  read  the  whole 
time.     Never  could  one  learn  who  the  man  was." 

And  again,  ten  days  later:  "I  have  now  learned  who 
the  man  in  the  mask  was  who  died  in  the  Bastile.  It 
was  not  barbarism  that  he  was  so  masked.  It  was  an 
English  lord  who  was  concerned  in  the  affair  of  the 
Duke  of  Berwick  against  King  William.  He  died  this 
way  in  order  that  King  William  should  never  know 
what  had  become  of  him.  They  have  the  bad  habit 
here  of  seldom  telling  people  what  they  have  against 
them,  and  allowing  them  no  defence." 


Louis  XIV 


CHAPTER  VII 


The  Tragic  Ending  of  an  Era 


In  1710  Madame  had  one  great  satisfaction:  the 
marriage  of  her  eldest  granddaughter  to  the  Due  de 
Berry.  She  describes  the  way  in  which  the  announce- 
ment was  made  to  her:  "I  sat  writing  at  my  window 
to  the  Queen  of  Spain  and  Madame  de  Savoie.  All  at 
once  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  and  her  husband  came 
jumping  into  the  room  with  all  their  ladies  and  cried 
out,  '  Madame,  we  are  bringing  you  the  Due  de  Berry, 
for  the  King  has  just  declared  publicly  that  he  is  to 
marry  Mademoiselle.  .  .  .'  To  the  Due  de  Berry  I  said, 
'Come  and  let  me  kiss  you,  for  you  are  now  more  than 
ever  what  Madame  the  Dauphiness  called  you.'  She 
had  called  him  my  Berry,  le  Berry  de  Madame.  .  .  . 
The  very  next  day  I  went  to  Madame  de  Maintenon  to 

177 


N 


178  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

thank  her,  for  she  has  acted  very  well  indeed  in  this 
affair.  She  was  right  merry  that  day,  and  our  conver- 
sation did  not  languish." 

It  is  strange  that  Madame  should  have  been  so 
much  affected  by  this  match.  The  Due  de  Berry  had 
been  very  much  in  her  bad  graces  of  late.  She  com- 
plains bitterly  in  1708  of  his  familiarity  with  the 
Duchesse  de  Bourgogne's  ladies  "who  know  how  to 
conduct  themselves  about  as  well  as  if  they  came 
from  a  cow  stable,  and  treat  him  like  a  lackey." 
We  hear  elsewhere  that  they  talk  to  him  in  a  very  im- 
proper tone  of  familiarity,  one  saying,  "Berry,  go  fetch 
me  my  work  !"  another,  "Berry,  my  scissors  !"  "He  no 
longer  knows  who  he  is,"  continues  Madame,  " .  .  .  he 
learns  nothing  but  how  to  laugh  at  people  without 
reason,  and  how  to  play  stingily  and  be  backward  in 
paying,  which  is  very  unbecoming  in  a  man  of  his  ex- 
traction." About  the  same  time  she  complains  that 
Madame  de  Maintenon's  clique  has  estranged  from  her- 
self the  Due  de  Berry,  "whom  I  loved  as  my  own  child." 
In  the  next  year  she  complains  again  of  his  familiarity 
with  the  ladies  in  waiting:  "He  stands,  or  sits  on  a 
little  stool,  while  all  the  young  ladies  lie  across  arm- 
chairs or  on  lounges.  .  .  .  He  himself  knows  so  little 
who  he  is  that  if  he  finds  any  one  showing  him  respect, 
he  is  perfectly  nonplussed  and  .  .  .  thinks  they  are 
making  fun  of  him." 


THE   TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  179 

Of  Madame  de  Berry  she  writes  in  the  year  after  the 
wedding:  "She  [the  Duchesse  de  Berry]  has  a  short 
fat  body,  long  arms,  short  hips,  walks  badly,  and  is  un- 
graceful in  everything  she  does.  She  makes  frightful 
grimaces,  has  a  weepy  face,  ruined  by  the  small-pox, 
and  red  eyes,  light  blue  inside.  She  has  a  very  red 
complexion,  and  looks  much  older  than  she  really  is. 
What  is  perfectly  beautiful  about  her  is  her  neck,  hand, 
and  arm;  they  are  very  white  and  well  formed.  Her 
feet  and  ankles  are  very  pretty,  too;  I  can't  imagine 
why  she  wiggles  so  when  she  walks.  With  all  this  her 
husband  and  father  think  that  Helena  was  not  so  beau- 
tiful as  the  Duchesse  de  Berry." 

It  develops  in  time  that  the  person  whom  Madame 
de  Berry  fears  and  respects  the  most  is  Madame  herself,  so 
the  latter  is  formally  intrusted  by  the  King  with  the  task 
of  keeping  the  somewhat  wayward  Princess  in  order. 
Madame  writes  in  full  of  one  great  sermon  she  has  given 
her,  and  again,  in  1712:  "Our  Duchesse  de  Berry  is 
madder  and  naughtier  than  ever.  Yesterday  she  tried 
to  talk  back  to  me,  but  I  gave  her  a  good  piece  of  my 
mind.  She  came  all  decked  out  in  full  dress,  with  more 
than  fourteen  poingons  of  the  finest  diamonds  in  the 
world.  That  was  all  right,  but  she  had  twelve  mouches 
on  her  face,  which  was  horribly  unbecoming.  As  she 
came  in  front  of  me  I  said :  '  Madame,  you  look  finely, 
but  I  think  you  have  too  many  mouches;    that  looks 


180  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

too  undignified.  You  are  the  first  lady  in  this  land ; 
that  calls  for  more  gravity  than  to  be  mouched  up  like 
the  actors  on  the  stage.'  She  pursed  up  her  mouth  and 
said,  'I  know  you  dislike  mouches,  but  I  approve  of  them 
and  intend  to  suit  myself.' "  Madame's  lecture  con- 
cluded :  "  When  I  tell  you  what  I  think,  it  is  for  your  own 
good,  and  I  do  it  because  it  is  my  duty  as  your  grand- 
mother, and  because  the  King  orders  me." 

*»i*  «j>  vt<  >j*  >t< 

^^  0J*  ^+  ^^  ^^ 

But  it  is  time  to  see  how  the  King  had  been  faring 
all  this  time. 

Things  had  gone  badly  for  him  in  the  war.  The 
French  lost  the  battles  of  Blenheim,  Turin  (at  which 
latter  battle  Madame's  son  commanded),  Ramillies,  and 
Malplaquet.  After  Blenheim  Madame  sadly  enumerates 
those  of  her  ladies  and  of  her  acquaintances  who  have 
lost  their  only  sons.  "One  sees  nothing  but  bereaved 
people,  which  is  quite  pitiful,"  she  writes.  "War  is  a 
horrible  thing.  .  .  .  What  happened  at  Blenheim  is 
well  worth  singing  a  Te  Deum  over  in  Germany.  .  .  . 
They  do  not  belittle  this  battle  here  at  all,  but  confess 
openly  that  it  is  lost,  and  that  Tallard  was  beaten  be- 
cause the  cavalry  did  not  do  its  duty.  .  .  .  Here  they 
are  too  sad  to  sing,  and  not  a  single  song  has  been  written 
against  Monsieur  Tallard,  though  he  merits  it  more  than 
some  others.  .  .  .  The  whole  court,  almost,  is  in  mourn- 
ing.    Madame  de  Cornuel  used  to  say,  'The  Te  Deum  of 


The  Duke  of  Marlborough 


THE  TRAGIC   ENDING   OF  AN   ERA  181 

the  great  prince  is  often  the  de  profundis  of  the  ordinary 
person.'" 

In  the  year  of  Malplaquet  she  writes:  "There  is  no 
laughing  about  anything  any  more;  everything  here  is 
growing  very  earnest.  The  King  has  sent  all  his  gold 
plate  to  the  mint  [all  the  silver  furniture  had  long  since 
been  melted  down]:  gold  dishes  set  with  diamonds  and 
rubies,  very  beautiful ;  a  nef  in  which  the  napkins  are 
put,  which  is  the  finest  work  the  eye  could  look  upon,  — 
all  that  is  to  be  melted  up.  I  am  especially  sorry  about 
the  nef  There  is  a  fine  crown  on  it  of  diamonds  and 
beautiful  rubies.  It  makes  one  moralize  terribly."  This 
was  the  nef  to  which  the  courtiers  bowed  in  passing, 
and  its  destruction  must  indeed  have  seemed  to  Ma- 
dame a  symbol  of  the  King's  departing  glory. 

"In  my  lifetime,"  she  writes  again,  "I  have  never 
seen  such  sad  times  as  now.  The  common  people  are 
dying  like  flies  from  cold  and  poverty ;  every  class  of 
people  are  sad  and  have  lost  this  year  either  friends  or 
relatives.  Every  one  [at  court]  dines  and  lives  apart; 
there  is  no  more  holding  court  except  at  supper,  where 
no  one  opens  his  mouth.   .  .  ." 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Louis  XIV  bent  his  pride 
to  the  extent  of  sending  an  envoy  to  demand  of  the 
Dutch  their  probable  conditions  for  peace.  Galling  as 
these  were,  the  Due  de  Beauvilliers,  in  a  council  of  war 
at   Versailles,    painted   the   miseries   of   France   in   such 


182  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

colors  that  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  burst  into  tears,  and 
the  whole  council  followed  suit.  It  was  determined  to 
make  peace  at  almost  any  price,  and  one  of  the  minis- 
ters, Torcy,  was  despatched  to  treat  directly  with  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  with  Prince  Eugene,  and  with 
the  Grand  Pensionary  of  Holland.  Torcy  found  that 
the  terms  previously  offered  were  merely  illusory.  He 
was  prepared  to  make  enormous  sacrifices,  but  to  one 
demand  he  could  not  and  would  not  yield:  that  Louis, 
namely,  should  make  war  against  his  own  grandson  and 
drive  him  out  of  Spain.  Louis  exclaimed  when  he  heard 
the  proposition,  "If  I  have  to  make  war,  I  had  rather 
make  it  against  my  enemies  than  against  my  own  chil- 
dren!" 

Madame  for  once  expresses  herself  vehemently  on 
questions  of  state  policy.  She  thinks  it  better  to  waste 
away  and  die  than  submit  to  such  shame,  and  does  not 
see  how  any  one  could  ever  imagine  that  Louis  could 
consent:  "The  insolence  of  Eugene  and  Marlborough 
will  surely  be  punished,  and  pride  is  going  before  a  fall. 
...  It  is  abominable  and  unprecedented  that  they 
should  wish  to  compel  a  grandfather  to  make  war  against 
his  own  grandson,  who  assumed  the  crown  of  Spain 
through  mere  obedience.     They  seem  not  to  wish  peace." 

Madame  had  known  personally  the  chief  actors  in  the 
war.  Of  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  she  writes  as  follows 
in  1710:    "Prince  Eugene's  merits  have  grown  in  Ger- 


THE  TRAGIC   ENDING  OF  AN  ERA  183 

many  like  his  hair,  for  when  he  was  here,  one  saw  no 
trace  of  them.  Quite  the  contrary;  he  was  nothing  but 
a  dirty,  very  dissipated  boy  who  gave  no  promise  of 
amounting  to  anything.  I  can  perfectly  truly  assure 
your  Grace  of  that." 

Again  in  1712:  "They  do  not  seem  to  think  Prince 
Eugene  so  ugly  in  London  as  they  do  in  Holland.  If 
bravery  and  intelligence  make  a  hero,  Prince  Eugene  is 
certainly  a  hero ;  if  other  virtues  are  needed,  there  might 
be  a  discrepancy.  In  his  Madame  Simone  and  Madame 
l'Ancienne  days  he  was  looked  upon  here  as  a  little 
salop.  At  that  time  he  wanted  a  benefice  bringing  in 
only  2000  thalers ;  it  was  refused  him  on  account  of  his 
horrible  debauchery.  So  he  went  off  to  the  imperial 
court,  where  he  made  his  fortune.  His  diamond  sword, 
which  Queen  Anne  gave  him,  must  be  the  best  thing 
about  him." 

And  still  again  in  1720:  "Prince  Eugene  I  should  not 
have  recognized  from  his  portrait;  for  when  he  was 
here  he  had  a  short  snub  nose,  and  in  the  engraving 
they  make  him  a  long  pointed  nose.  His  nose  was  so 
snubby  that  he  always  kept  his  mouth  open,  and  one 
saw  the  whole  of  the  two  large  front  teeth.  I  know 
him  very  well ;  I  often  plagued  him  when  he  was  still  a 
child.  They  wanted  him  to  enter  the  church;  he  was 
dressed  like  an  abbe.  But  I  always  assured  him  that 
he  would  not  remain  one,  and  so  it  turned  out.     When 


184  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD  REGIME 

he  left  off  the  clerical  dress,  the  young  people  called  him 
nothing  but  Madame  Simone,  and  Madame  l'Ancienne, 
for  they  pretended  that  he  often  acted  the  lady  with 
young  people.  So  you  see,  dear  Louisa,  that  I  know 
Prince  Eugene  very  well.  I  knew  his  whole  family: 
father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters,  uncles,  and  aunts;  so 
he  is  not  at  all  unknown  to  me  and  cannot  possibly 
have  acquired  a  long  pointed  nose.  Madame  la  Duchesse 
d'Orleans  says  perhaps  his  teeth  have  fallen  out,  and 
that  has  pulled  down  his  snub  nose.  I  don't  know 
whether  that  is  possible." 

Of  Marlborough  she  writes  in  1710:  "Lord  Marl- 
borough is,  as  I  see,  more  miserly  than  Seigneur  Harpa- 
gon  [in  Moliere's  Avare].  I  have  not  spoken  much  with 
him,  but  I  have  seen  him  twice  in  this  country.  At  that 
time  he  had  a  fine  figure  and  face,  and  did  not  look  at 
all  like  a  miser,  for  he  was  well  and  magnificently  dressed 
and  had  quite  fine  wigs." 

And  again  in  1712:  "I  think,  as  I  have  often  said, 
that  Queen  Anne  was  right  to  punish  Marlborough;  his 
wife  and  he  were  quite  too  insolent  to  the  Queen.  But 
Parliament  ought  to  reward  him,  for  he  did  good  service. 
Stinginess  is  not  punishable  unless  one  steals." 

While  the  war  was  still  going  on,  there  fell  upon 
Louis  XIV  a  perfect  avalanche  of  other  misfortunes. 
Retribution  had  at  last  come  for  all  the  evil  the  proud 
King  had  done ;  a  blight  withered  the  house  of  Bourbon. 


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Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy 


THE  TRAGIC  ENDING  OF  AN  ERA  185 

In  1711  the  Dauphin  was  stricken  with  the  small-pox. 
Madame  writes,  while  still  under  the  excitement,  that 
she  has  been  roused  from  her  bed  at  midnight  by  one 
of  her  ladies  announcing  that  the  Dauphin  was  dying  at 
his  palace  at  Meudon ;  that  the  King  at  that  very  mo- 
ment was  driving  through  Versailles  to  Marly,  having,  as 
was  the  custom  of  the  court,  fled  the  house  of  death. 
"A  moment  later,"  writes  Madame,  "they  said  it  was  all 
over,  that  the  Dauphin  was  dead.  Your  Grace  can  read- 
ily imagine  what  a  dreadful  state  of  terror  this  produced. 
I,  too,  ordered  my  coaches  and  quickly  dressed  again.  I 
ran  straight  across  to  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  where 
I  came  on  a  piteous  spectacle.  The  Due  and  Duchesse 
de  Bourgogne  were  perfectly  overwhelmed;  they  were 
pale  as  death  and  said  not  a  single  word.  The  Due  and 
Duchesse  de  Berry  lay  on  the  floor  with  their  elbows  on 
a  sofa  and  shrieking  to  be  heard  three  rooms  off."  Saint- 
Simon,  who  saw  Madame  as  she  hurried  to  the  Duchesse 
de  Bourgogne's  room,  makes  merry  over  her  punctilious- 
ness in  being  in  a  long-trained  dress,  en  grand  habit,  for 
fear  she  might  meet  the  King.  But  it  is  evident  from 
her  own  words  that  she  caught  up  the  garments  she  had 
just  taken  off;  moreover,  she  tells  us  once  that  she  has 
no  other  dresses  in  the  world  but  her  grand  habit  and 
her  hunting  costume. 

She  drove  the  next  morning  to  see  the  King  at  Marly. 
"He  is  in  a  state  of  sorrow,"  she  writes,  "that  would 


186  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

move  a  stone  to  pity;  and  yet  he  is  not  irritable,  but 
speaks  to  every  one  quite  gently.  ...  I  bear  the  mis- 
fortune quite  calmly  and  am  only  worried  about  the 
King.  .  .  .  They  have  told  me  how  we  are  to  treat  the 
new  Dauphin,  the  former  Due  de  Bourgogne.  He  is  not 
to  be  simply  Monseigneur,  as  his  father  was,  but  in  speak- 
ing to  him  he  is  to  be  called  Monsieur,  and  in  speaking 
of  him  Monsieur  le  Dauphin.  But  in  writing  he  is  to 
be  addressed  as  Monseigneur.  .  .  .  All  Paris  and  the 
provinces  are  in  despair  over  this  death.  It  must  have 
been  a  truly  horrible  poison  that  killed  the  poor  man, 
for  I  was  told  yesterday  that  as  he  died  a  black  fume  was 
seen  to  come  out  of  his  mouth,  from  which  his  whole 
face  turned  and  remained  pitchy  black." 

The  Dauphin's  putrid  corpse  was  hurried  away  to  St. 
Denis  with  what  many  considered  unseemly  haste.  Baron 
de  Breteuil,  one  of  the  King's  household,  assures  us  that 
the  workman  who  made  the  coffin,  finding  it  too  narrow, 
knelt  on  the  Dauphin's  stomach  and  worked  the  body 
into  place  with  his  knees.  Eventually,  indeed,  two  great 
ceremonies  were  held,  one  in  St.  Denis  and  one  in  Notre 
Dame  de  Paris. 

Before  a  year  was  over  another  great  blow  fell  on  the 
court.  This  time  it  was  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne. 
"We  are  here  in  great  grief,"  writes  Madame,  "for 
night  before  last  the  poor  Dauphiness  died.  I  cannot 
look  at  the  King  without  tears  coming  into  my  eyes. 


THE   TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  187 

She  was  his  sole  companion  and  pleasure.  .  .  .  One 
can  truly  say  that,  save  for  Madame  de  Maintenon,  the 
King  loses  all  he  has  loved  most  in  this  world.  With 
the  Dauphiness  all  his  joy  and  delight  are  gone." 

Of  the  new  Dauphin  Madame  writes,  "He  is  young, 
he  will  marry  again."  But  she  was  mistaken.  He 
loved  his  wife  with  a  love  such  as  the  walls  of  Versailles 
had  never  witnessed  —  certainly  not  between  those  who 
were  joined  in  wedlock.  He  was  ill  himself  when  his 
wife  died,  but  he  rose  from  his  bed,  dressed  without  the 
aid  of  his  valet,  threw  a  great  cloak  over  him,  left  his 
apartment  by  a  back  door,  crossed  the  basement  and 
the  cour  de  marbre  with  his  head  down  and  his  face  con- 
cealed in  his  cloak,  entered  a  coach,  and  was  driven  to 
Marly,  where  he  shut  himself  in  his  room.  The  King 
came  and  was  admitted,  but  it  was  too  painful,  and  he 
soon  left;  then  the  courtiers  came  and  filed  past  as  he 
sat  in  an  arm-chair  by  the  side  of  his  bed.  Not  a  word 
was  spoken ;  all  merely  bowed  their  heads.  Within  a 
week  he  followed  his  wife  to  the  grave.  His  illness  was 
measles,  but  at  the  last  he  was  seized  with  a  fit  of  mad- 
ness, and  it  took  eight  men  to  hold  him  down.  Then 
his  mind  cleared,  and  he  passed  away  in  a  sort  of  religious 
ecstacy. 

Madame  writes  on  the  day  of  his  death:  "I  thought 
to  write  your  Grace  of  nothing  sadder  than  the  mourn- 
ful rite  we  had  to  perform  yesterday  at  Versailles.     But 


188  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

we  are  overwhelmed  by  yet  a  new  calamity;  for  the 
good  Dauphin  has  followed  his  wife  and  died  this  morn- 
ing at  half-past  eight.  .  .  .  The  Dauphin  surely  died  of 
grief.  .  .  .  They  opened  the  good  man  and  found  him 
perfectly  decayed,  the  heart  withered  and  flat;  hence 
they  judged  that  he  had  died  of  grief.  The  loss  has 
infinitely  affected  his  Majesty.  .  .  .  The  sadness  that 
reigns  here  is  indescribable.  ...  I  really  believe  that 
all  of  us  here  are  about  to  die  off  one  by  one." 

The  Dauphin  left  two  sons.  When  the  governess  of 
the  elder  one  called  him  Monsieur  le  Dauphin,  —  it  is 
Madame  who  relates  it,  —  "he  shuddered  and  looked  at 
her  pitifully;  'Mamma/  for  so  he  called  her,  'don't  give 
me  that  name,  it  is  too  sad.'"  Within  a  week  the  little 
fellow  and  his  brother  were  down  with  the  measles;  a 
fortnight  later  the  third  Dauphin  was  dead.  Madame 
was  always  sure  that  he,  as  well  as  his  mother,  was  a 
victim  of  the  doctors'  unalterable  faith  in  bleeding.  The 
Duchesse  de  Ventadour,  governess  of  the  last  little 
Bourbon  prince  to  remain  alive,  had  been  one  of  Ma- 
dame's  ladies  and  had  imbibed  her  antipathy  to  bleeding. 
Madame  writes:  " Yesterday,  because  the  child  had  a 
high  fever,  they  wanted  to  bleed  him  too;  but  Madame 
de  Ventadour  and  the  Prince's  sous  gouvernante,  Madame 
de  Villefort,  opposed  the  doctors  strongly  and  would 
not  permit  it  at  all.  All  they  did  was  to  keep  him  nice 
and  warm.     This  one,  thank  God,  to  the  shame  of  the 


The  King's  Balcony 


THE   TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  189 

doctors,  has  been  saved.  He  would  surely  have  died 
had  the  doctors  been  allowed  to  have  their  way."  It 
was  found  later  that  the  high  fever  had  come  from 
cutting  a  tooth. 

Madame  writes  in  connection  with  these  deaths  that 
the  King's  grief  is  so  great  it  makes  her  tremble;  that 
her  heart  aches  at  seeing  his  efforts  to  force  back  the 
pain;  that  against  his  will  the  tears  come  to  his  eyes, 
and  one  can  see  that  he  is  suffering  inwardly.  There 
was  no  longer  any  barrier  between  them ;  she  was  ad- 
mitted freely  to  the  "holy  of  holies"  and  did  her  best 
to  keep  him  from  thinking  of  sad  things.  "We  talk  a 
great  deal  of  the  past,"  she  writes,  "but  no  word  about 
the  present  nor  of  war  or  peace ;  nor  do  we  speak  of  the 
three  Dauphins  or  the  Dauphiness.  If  he  begins  about 
it,  I  suddenly  talk  of  something  else,  as  though  I  had 
not  heard.  ...  I  burst  out  with  all  sorts  of  trifles; 
but  it  is  hard  to  bring  up  anything  diverting  when 
calamity  follows  so  fast  on  calamity.  Sometimes  I 
really  do  force  a  smile." 

Madame  even  softens  toward  Madame  de  Maintenon  for 
a  moment :  "Although  the  old  woman  is  our  worst  enemy, 
yet  for  the  King's  sake  I  wish  her  a  long  life.  Things 
would  be  ten  times  worse  were  the  King  to  die  now.  He 
loves  the  woman  so  terribly  much  that  he  would  certainly 
follow  her  to  the  grave ;  so  I  hope  she  may  still  live  a 
great  many  years." 


190  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

Madame  has  her  own  sorrows  at  this  time  that  were 
worse,  she  says  herself,  than  all  the  deaths  in  the  royal 
family,  and  soon  she  becomes  convinced  that  Madame 
de  Maintenon  is  largely  responsible  for  them. 

Persistent  rumors  are  spread  that  Madame's  son  Philip 
has  poisoned  all  the  Dauphins.  She  writes  that  his  ene- 
mies "try  to  make  him  odious  in  Paris  and  at  court  and 
spread  the  cry  of  poison.  .  .  .  No  one  dies  at  court  but 
what  they  lay  it  to  him."  The  King  stood  by  Philip,  but 
in  the  latter's  own  interest,  ordered  an  investigation  and 
decided  that  Philip's  chemist,  Homberg,  who  was  sup- 
posed to  have  provided  him  with  the  mysterious  poisons, 
should  be  sent  to  the  Bastile.  Before  he  even  reached 
there  the  case  was  dropped,  for  the  doctors  had  reported 
that  there  was  no  trace  of  poison  in  the  corpses.  Madame 
writes  in  May,  1715,  "My  son  was  not  content  with  prov- 
ing his  innocence,  but  he  has  had  all  the  evidence  placed 
before  the  parlement  to  be  preserved  there." 

Madame  had  written  some  years  previously:  "In  the 
Palais  Royal  my  son  has  fitted  up  a  whole  apartment  under 
the  grand  apartment  as  a  laboratory.  His  delight,  too,  is  to 
melt  metals  with  the  burning  glass.  I  imagine  this  keeps 
him  in  Paris  as  often  as  his  brown  lady-love.  When  he 
comes  from  his  laboratory,  he  does  not  look  badly  at 
all.  There  is  a  Saxon,  born  in  India,  who  makes  ex- 
periments with  him.  He  is  very  intelligent ;  his  name  is 
Homberg." 


THE   TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  191 

Coupled  with  the  charge  of  poisoning  was  an  almost 
worse  one,  that  of  incest.  Madame  writes:  "Your  Grace 
can  well  imagine  that  it  is  not  pleasant  for  me  to  know 
that  they  put  up  placards  on  the  Palais  Royal  with: 
'  Here  is  where  the  lotteries  take  place  and  where  one  finds 
the  best  poison.'  The  'lotteries'  means  that  my  son 
lives  with  his  daughter  as  Lot  did.  .  .  .  We  know,  alas, 
that  he  says  wrong  things  when  he  has  been  drinking, 
but  what  they  wrote  to  Germany  about  him  he  certainly 
did  not  say.  What  he  did  say  was  not  very  suitable, 
either;  for  when  asked  at  table  why  he  loved  his  eldest 
daughter  [the  Duchesse  de  Berry]  better  than  all  his  other 
children,  they  say  he  answered  that  it  was  because  she 
was  the  only  one  of  his  wife's  children  of  whom  he  could 
be  sure  that  it  was  his  own  daughter.  That  is,  indeed, 
an  impertinent  way  of  speaking."  Madame  writes  else- 
where that  her  son  "has  eaten  like  a  wolf  with  his  daughter 
and  drunk  still  more,  as  unfortunately  always  happens 
there";  and  again,  with  regard  to  Madame  de  Berry  and 
her  sister,  that  "in  the  matter  of  drink  alone  it  would  kill 
any  ten  men  who  tried  to  imitate  them." 

The  King  rallied  from  the  blows  of  every  kind  that  had 
fallen  upon  him.  He  followed  the  hunt,  driving  his  own 
four  horses.  One  of  these  fell  over  a  precipice  at  Fontaine- 
bleau,  but  he  was  able  to  control  the  other  three.  Under 
the  regime  of  Madame  de  Berry,  who  was  now  first  lady, 
the  court  even  unfolded  unheard-of  magnificence,  the  balls 


192  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

at  Versailles  lasting  sometimes  until  eight  in  the  morning. 
She  instituted  what  we  should  call  coach  parades,  as 
many  as  a  hundred  coaches  making  the  tour  of  the  grand 
canal  at  Fontainebleau.  Of  her  own  caleche  the  wheels, 
the  dash-board,  and  the  harness  blazed  with  gold.  Her 
rich  dress  was  covered  with  diamonds,  rubies,  and  em- 
eralds, while  her  head  is  described  as  literally  too  dazzling 
to  behold.  "Even  imagination  could  go  no  further/1 
writes  the  Mercure  de  France,  in  connection  with  all  this 
magnificence. 

The  Due  de  Berry  showed  himself  less  able  to  fill 
his  position  than  was  the  case  with  his  wife.  On  a 
formal  occasion,  his  renunciation  of  the  crown  of  Spain 
which  was  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  Utrecht  peace, 
he  covered  himself  with  confusion  by  rising  to  deliver 
a  speech  which  Saint-Simon  had  written  for  him,  but 
of  which  he  was  unable  to  utter  more  than  the  opening 
" Monsieur."  This  he  repeated  several  times,  his  air  of 
distress  exciting  general  compassion.  It  had  to  be  taken 
for  granted,  finally,  that  the  speech  had  been  made. 
He  seems  to  have  been  of  a  too  nervous  disposition  and 
distinguished  himself  once,  while  hunting,  by  putting 
a  charge  of  shot  into  the  eye  of  Monsieur  le  Due.  The 
lead  could  not  be  extracted,  we  are  told;  the  wound 
swelled,  and  all  that  the  doctors  could  do  was  to  bleed 
the  patient  three  times  and  talk  of  dissolving  the  eye, 
which  finally  went  out  of  itself.     It  was  rash  to  hunt 


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THE  TRAGIC  ENDING  OF  AN   ERA  193 

with  the  Due  de  Berry ;  pensions  were  being  paid  to  five 
persons  whom  he  had  accidentally  crippled. 

The  Due  de  Berry's  death  in  1714  added  one  more  to 
the  tragedies  in  the  royal  house.  He  had  given  himself 
an  internal  injury  while  suddenly  pulling  up  his  horse, 
and  the  bleedings  that  the  doctors  gave  him  did  not  im- 
prove matters.  "We  have  here  our  Due  de  Berry  horribly 
and  dangerously  ill,"  writes  Madame,  on  May  4,  ".  .  . 
I  have  just  come  from  his  Grace's  room;  they  have  bled 
him  again  for  the  eighth  time.  ...  I  fear  more  than  I 
can  say  that  it  will  turn  out  badly."  And  again,  after 
two  days:  "I  prophesied  only  too  truly  ...  for  the 
poor  man  died  Friday  at  four  in  the  morning.  .  .  .  The 
King  himself  brought  the  holy  sacrament;  we  were  all 
at  this  sad  ceremony,  which  lasted  three-quarters  of  an 
hour.  One  cannot  conceive  of  anything  more  sad.  It 
is  heart-rending."  But  all  the  same  she  writes  soon 
after,  "Had  the  Due  de  Berry  continued  to  love  me,  noth- 
ing could  have  consoled  me  for  his  death;  but  since  he 
had  changed  towards  me  so  much  that  I  am  sure  if  I 
had  died,  he  would  only  have  laughed,  I  too  have  consoled 
myself." 

Seeing  the  fate  of  France  dependent  on  one  feeble  life, 
Louis  had  his  sons  by  Madame  de  Montespan  declared 
next  in  succession  to  the  throne ! 

If  the  fetes  ceased,  the  ceremonies  continued  and  Madame 
was  now  much  in  evidence.     It  was  she  who,  when  the  son 


194  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  came  to  France  in  1714,  for- 
mally presented  him  to  the  King.  The  Duchesse  de  Berry 
in  her  widow's  weeds  of  black  and  ermine  stood  by,  and 
the  occasion  was  considered  of  sufficient  importance  for  one 
of  the  court  painters  to  paint  the  scene. 

Madame  herself  writes :  "  They  rendered  my  speech 
wrong,  for  I  never  in  my  life  called  the  King  'sire,'  but 
'sir.'  The  enf ants  de  France  never  call  the  King  ' sire ' ; 
that  begins  with  the  petits  enfants.  What  I  did  say  to 
the  King  was,  'Sir,  here  is  the  Electoral  Prince  of  Saxony 
who  wishes  me  to  present  him  to  your  Majesty.'  The 
Prince  stepped  up  with  a  right  lofty  and  good  mien  and 
paid  his  respects  to  the  King  without  the  least  embarrass- 
ment. By  this  he  at  once  gained  the  approval  of  the 
King  and  of  the  whole  court,  and  the  King  answered  him 
very  politely."  The  King,  furthermore,  presented  him 
with  a  jewelled  sword,  the  chief  diamond  on  which  alone 
was  worth  10,000  thalers. 

In  June,  1714,  Madame's  aunt,  the  Electress  Sophia, 
was  struck  down  by  apoplexy  and  died  almost  imme- 
diately. Madame  was  more  affected  by  this  death  than 
by  any  of  the  tragedies  that  had  taken  place  in  France. 
" Through  her  gracious  letters,"  she  writes,  "this  dear 
Electress  relieved  me  of  many  a  sorrow  and  sadness  of 
heart  that  had  fallen  on  me  in  this  land.  .  .  .  The  tears 
will  cease,  but  my  inward  pain  and  grief  will  endure  to 
the  end.     I  forget,  dear  Louisa,  if  I  wrote  you  how  I 


THE  TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  195 

heard  of  this  misfortune,  and  how  they  caused  it  to  be 
announced  to  me  through  my  father  confessor.  A 
trembling  came  over  me,  as  when  one  has  a  chill  with  a 
high  fever.  I  grew  pale,  too,  as  death.  I  was  a  good  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  without  weeping ;  but  my  breath  failed  me, 
and  I  seemed  to  be  suffocating.  Then  the  tears  came 
in  floods  and  lasted  day  and  night.  .  .  .  You  are  right 
in  saying  that  this  awful  news  has  pierced  me  through 
heart  and  soul." 

But  she  has  to  continue  to  take  part  in  the  doings  of 
the  court.  "What  I  endure  day  and  night,"  she  writes, 
"is  impossible  for  me  to  describe;  and  I  have  the  added 
torture  of  having  to  control  myself;  for  the  King  can- 
not endure  sad  faces." 

In  August  Madame  writes  to  her  half-sister :  "I  imagine 
you  will  already  have  heard  that  Queen  Anne  has  had  a 
stroke.  They  think  here  that  she  is  dead.  It  made  me 
think  anew  of  our  dear  dead  Electress.  Had  she  lived 
three  months  longer  she  would  have  died  a  queen.  What 
strange  things  happen  in  the  world !" 

Madame  was  not  pleased  by  the  attitude  towards  her- 
self of  the  new  King  of  England,  though  just  what  her 
grievance  was  is  not  clear.  She  writes  in  January,  1715: 
"I  must  confess  the  King  of  England  makes  me  impatient 
when  he  shows  so  little  consideration  for  his  late  mother, 
as  to  treat  those  whom  she  loved  and  who  are  so  nearly 
related  to  him  with  such  scorn.     I,  too,  am  of  the  number. 


196  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

...  I  don't  know  whence  the  scorn  comes,  for  were  I 
a  Protestant,  he  could  not  have  been  king.  For  I  was 
nearer  to  the  crown  than  he,  and  it  is  only  through  my 
family  and  his  dear  dead  mother's  that  he  is  King.  .  .  . 
But  I  see  plainly  that  he  wishes  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  me,  so  one  must  console  oneself  for  this  misfor- 
tune." 

**\f  *tl>  *■!■*  *if*  fct^ 

^+  ^p  ^»  *f%  ?J^ 

To  return  to  the  ceremonies  at  the  French  court, 
a  most  extraordinary  one  took  place  early  in  1715.  It 
was  the  reception  of  a  Persian  ambassador  who  came  to 
lay  at  the  King's  feet  the  homage  of  the  Orient. 

On  the  day  of  the  reception  the  King  first  stood  on  his 
balcony  and  watched  the  entry  of  the  envoy  into  the 
court-yard  of  the  palace,  then  returned,  crossed  the  (Eil 
de  boeuf,  and  proceeded  down  the  Galerie  des  glaces,  along 
one  whole  side  of  which  sat  brilliantly  attired  ladies. 
Seeing  that  they  showed  great  eagerness  to  scrutinize 
his  magnificent  costume,  —  the  coat  was  of  black  and  gold, 
and  around  his  neck  hung  the  cordon  bleu  with  all  the 
jewels  of  the  crown,  —  he  had  the  politeness,  we  are  told, 
to  walk  slowly  and  to  pass  very  close  to  the  ladies,  indeed. 
At  the  end  of  the  Galerie  was  his  throne,  around  which 
were  grouped  Madame,  the  Duchesse  de  Berry,  the  prin- 
cesses, and  all  their  ladies.  On  his  right  he  placed  the 
tiny  Dauphin ;  the  latter  was  kept  from  running  away  by 
the  Duchesse  de  Ventadour,  who  held  his  leading-strings ; 


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THE   TRAGIC   ENDING  OF   AN   ERA  197 

he,  too,  gleamed  all  over  with  precious  stones.  Madame's 
son  was  on  the  King's  left.  At  the  King's  feet  was  the 
painter  Coypel,  who  had  been  ordered  to  immortalize 
the  scene. 

Madame  describes  the  ambassador  as  "the  craziest 
person  you  could  possibly  imagine,"  and  as  bran- 
dishing his  sword  and  threatening  to  kill  every  one 
when  a  suggestion  was  made  that  he  did  not  like.  He 
eventually  distinguished  himself  by  abducting  a  French- 
man's wife.  She  was  put  in  a  box,  which  was  provided 
with  air-holes,  and  was  sent  off  with  the  rest  of  his  lug- 
gage. 

Saint-Simon  maintains  that  the  whole  embassy  from 
Persia  was  a  trick  arranged  by  the  King's  ministers 
to  give  pleasure  to  their  senile  master.  At  all  events  it 
was  the  latter's  last  glimpse  of  glory. 

He  dismissed  the  envoy  with  gifts  of  great  value  — 
diamonds,  emeralds,  clocks,  watches,  guns,  pistols,  and 
tapestries  —  and  then  took  to  his  bed,  never  to  rise  from 
it  again.  He  died  of  a  sort  of  spreading  gangrene;  for 
a  time  it  was  confined  to  his  leg,  and  the  doctors  hoped  it 
would  not  pass  the  garter  mark.  He  himself  had  no 
illusions,  but  spoke  of  the  time  "when  I  was  King,"  and 
thanked  God  for  making  him  a  descendant  of  St.  Louis 
and  giving  him  so  long  a  reign.  He  had  a  most  touching 
last  interview  with  Madame,  telling  her  he  had  always 
loved  her  more  than   she  could  possibly   imagine,   and 


198  A   LADY  OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

that  he  was  sorry  for  all  the  pain  he  had  caused  her. 
"He  said  farewell  to  me  with  such  tender  words," 
she  writes,  "that  I  am  still  astonished  myself  that 
I  did  not  faint  dead  away."  She  threw  herself  on 
her  knees  at  his  bedside,  and  he  gave  her  a  fond 
embrace. 

After  the  King's  case  was  regarded  as  hopeless,  a  quack 
was  admitted  who  promised  to  cure  him  with  a  certain 
elixir.  One  day  there  was  wild  rejoicing  because  the  King 
had  evidently  gained  in  strength.  There  was  talk  of 
throwing  the  regular  physicians  into  the  Seine.  Then 
the  gangrene  passed  the  garter  mark,  and  the  leg,  we  are 
told,  "was  as  rotted  as  though  the  King  had  been  dead  for 
six  months."  He  said  nothing  to  those  around  him,  but 
muttered  frequently :  "My  God,  have  pity  on  me  !  Why, 
Lord,  dost  Thou  not  take  me?  I  am  ready  to  appear 
before  Thee!"  Once  he  swooned,  was  considered  dead, 
and  Madame  de  Maintenon  hastily  fled  the  palace  forever 
—  a  day  too  soon.  He  revived,  but  was  like  a  piece  of 
mechanism  out  of  order.  To  make  him  take  food  his 
jaws  were  opened  by  force;  his  hands  had  to  be  held  to 
prevent  their  aimlessly  beating  the  air.  In  the  evening 
came  a  last  surprise.  While  the  almoners  were  chanting 
the  prayer  for  those  in  agony  the  last  live  chord  of  mem- 
ory was  touched,  and  the  King,  merely  from  habit,  broke 
out  with  the  Ave. Maria  and  the  Credo  in  tones  more  re- 
sounding than  those  of  the  priests  themselves.     The  next 


The  Persian  Envoy 


THE  TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  199 

morning  the  King's  life  ended,  quietly  and  peacefully  as 
a  flame  flickers  and  goes  out.  Then  Madame's  son  drew 
the  princes  of  the  blood  around  him,  fell  on  his  knees 
before  the  little  Dauphin,  calling  him  "Sire"  and  "Maj- 
esty" and  kissing  his  hand.  Then  a  high  official,  putting 
on  a  helm  with  black  plumes,  stepped  on  to  the  balcony 
and  cried  three  times  to  the  surging  crowd,  Le  Roi  est 
mort!  Then  changing  his  helm  to  one  with  white  plumes, 
he  cried  three  times  more,  Vive  le  Roi  ! 

Madame  at  this  time,  besides  her  grief  for  the  King, 
has  a  secret  sorrow,  too  terrible,  she  writes,  for  her  to 
intrust  to  paper.  "The  blood  they  took  from  me  to-day 
is  but  melancholy  blood,"  she  writes  to  her  half-sister; 
"if  you  knew  the  details,  you  would  wonder  that  I  can 
live.  To  one  so  virtuous  as  you,  dear  Louisa,  it  cannot 
be  written  by  post.  If  you  knew  all,  your  hair  would 
stand  up  on  end  ! "  And  again,  in  answer  to  rumors  (about 
what  she  does  not  say):  "Would  God  I  could  have 
assured  her  positively  that  it  was  not  true !  Perhaps  we 
don't  exactly  understand  each  other.  What  I  mean  is 
no  habit,  for  passions  are  stronger  than  habits,  and  also 
cause  more  disaster.  But  it  makes  one's  life  bitter  and 
wearisome ! " 

The  funerals  of  each  and  all  of  these  poor  royalties  whom 
we  have  seen  die  were  celebrated,  of  course,  with  the  great- 
est pomp.  As  a  rule  the  body  was  soon  removed  from 
the  palace;     but  if  the  master  of  ceremonies,  Sainctot, 


200  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

can  be  believed,  a  wax  figure  was  then  placed  in  the  bed 
and  served  with  food  and  drink  for  forty  days. 

The  portion  of  the  palace  occupied  by  the  defunct  would 
be  hung  with  cloth  and  velvet  in  the  most  complete 
manner  imaginable,  the  ceilings,  the  walls,  the  windows, 
and  doors,  and  even  the  steps,  being  covered  entirely. 
Day  and  night  priests  chanted  dirges  or  said  mass,  — 
as  many  as  sixty  masses  being  said  in  a  day.  All  the 
great  people,  in  immensely  long  black  trailing  garments, 
made  solemn  visits  to  sprinkle  the  body  with  holy  water. 
The  King's  own  train,  when  in  formal  mourning,  was 
four  and  a  half  feet  long,  and  the  crepe  on  his  hat  hung 
down  as  far  as  the  ground.  He  put  on  black  for  his  family, 
but  violet  for  foreign  rulers. 

Out  of  respect  for  a  vow  made  by  Anne  of  Austria  in 
1662  when  she  founded  Val  de  Grace,  the  heart  of  a  French 
royal  personage  was  cut  out  of  the  body,  placed  in  a  silver 
box,  and  carried  to  that  convent  at  dead  of  night.  Ma- 
dame de  Montespan,  having  tortured  the  Queen's  heart 
during  her  lifetime,  rode  to  Paris  in  the  coach  with  it 
after  her  death.  Madame  writes  in  1714  that  she  cannot 
bear  to  go  near  Val  de  Grace:  "For  opposite  their  choir 
is  a  chapel  in  which  are  the  hearts  of  Monsieur,  of  my 
eldest  son,  of  the  Queen,  the  Dauphiness,  and  the  three 
Dauphins,  as  well  as  of  the  Due  de  Berry.  They  are  en- 
closed in  silver  hearts;  over  them  hangs  a  black  veil 
and  a  crown  over  the  veil.     The  sight  is  to  me  absolutely 


THE  TRAGIC  ENDING  OF  AN   ERA  201 

unendurable.    I  should  weep  myself  ill.    So  I  am  very  care- 
ful not  to  go  to  this  convent." 

The  body  itself  was  taken  to  St.  Denis.  The  pro- 
cessions were  begun  at  night  by  the  light  of  thou- 
sands of  torches  and  to  the  sound  of  slow-beating  drums. 
But  they  might  last  for  ten  or  twelve  hours.  The  pall 
was  of  cloth  of  gold  bordered  with  ermine,  and  on  the 
cloth  of  gold  was  a  cross  of  cloth  of  silver,  while  above 
rested  a  crown  of  gold.  The  horses  that  drew  the  coaches 
were  caparisoned  with  black  velvet  falling  to  the  ground, 
and  the  livery  of  the  coachmen  was  of  the  same. 

Arrived  at  the  church  of  St.  Denis,  the  body  was  de- 
posited in  a  receiving  vault,  richly  decorated,  but  with 
emblems  of  death  everywhere.  It  was  guarded  by  the 
officers  of  the  household  day  and  night. 

After  forty  days  came  the  funeral  itself  in  the  nave 
of  the  church  where  a  great  catafalque  was  erected.  In 
the  case  of  the  first  Dauphiness  this  was  on  an  estrade 
to  which  one  ascended  by  nine  steps.  Above  was  a  dome 
help  up  by  eight  columns  and  lighted  with  a  circle  of  lamps. 
On  each  of  the  steps  were  gorgeous  candelabra  of  silver, 
containing  numberless  wax  candles.  Between  the  pairs 
of  columns  were  gigantic  figures  of  the  four  cardinal  vir- 
tues, while  attached  to  the  ceiling  above  the  dome  were 
a  superb  banner  and  four  great  black  streamers  lined  with 
ermine,  their  ends  being  caught  up.  All  around  the 
church  were  skulls  and  crossbones  illumined  by  tapers. 


202  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

In  the  case  of  Louis  XIV  there  were  great  cartoons 
representing  his  splendid  deeds.  The  services  lasted 
all  the  way  from  four  to  seven  hours,  and  the  whole 
proceedings,  both  those  that  were  premeditated  and 
sometimes  those  that  were  not  so,  were  extraordinary 
enough.  We  have  a  detailed  description  by  Saint-Simon 
of  the  funeral  of  the  first  Dauphiness.  The  court  did 
not  arrive  until  the  whole  assembly  had  been  seated  and 
all  the  candles  lighted.  Then  twenty-four  ringers  be- 
gan to  clang  the  bells;  both  sides  of  the  great  doors 
were  thrown  open,  and  Madame,  as  first  lady,  escorted 
by  the  Due  de  Bourgogne,  entered  first.  He  was  on 
her  left  hand  because  the  defunct  was  a  princess ;  had  it 
been  a  prince,  Madame  would  have  been  on  his  left. 
The  Due  de  Bourgogne's  train  was  five  feet  long,  but  at 
the  funeral  of  the  first  Dauphin  the  trains  of  the  Due  de 
Bourgogne,  of  the  Due  de  Berry,  and  of  Madame's  son 
were  each  twelve  ells,  or  thirty-six  feet,  long  and  were 
carried  by  distinguished  nobles.  The  bells  clanged  again 
as  the  clergy,  in  their  most  gorgeous  robes,  filed  in.  The 
court  performed  in  the  chancel  what  we  might  almost 
call  a  quadrille,  making  bows  of  ceremony  alone,  by  twos 
and  by  threes,  to  the  effigy  of  Louis  XIII  as  the  last  King 
who  had  died,  to  the  altar,  the  corpse,  and  to  each  of  the 
principal  mourners.  The  bow  of  ceremony  consisted  in 
crossing  your  legs  and  letting  yourself  down  slowly  with- 
out bending  the  head  or  the  body. 


The  Funeral  PROCESSION  of  Louis  XIV 


THE   TRAGIC   ENDING   OF   AN   ERA  203 

Madame  tells  how  at  the  Dauphiness's  funeral  she,  as 
first  lady,  had  to  hand  to  the  bishop  a  taper  weighted  with 
gold  for  the  offertory.  But  then  and  there,  between  the 
monks  of  St.  Denis  and  the  clergy  of  the  Dauphiness's 
household  there  broke  out  a  fierce  fight  as  to  which  should 
have  the  gold.  "They  scuffled  and  almost  hit  each  other," 
writes  Madame,  "and  broke  the  taper  in  three  places. 
They  threw  themselves  upon  the  bishop,  whose  chair 
began  to  totter  and  made  his  mitre  fall  from  his  head. 
Had  I  stayed  there  a  moment  longer,  the  bishop  with  all 
the  monks  would  have  fallen  upon  me.  I  descended  the 
steps  in  great  haste  and  looked  on  the  battle  from  a  safe 
distance.  In  spite  of  everything  it  was  so  comical  that 
I  could  not  but  laugh,  and  all  who  were  present  did  the 
same."  At  the  funeral  of  the  third  Dauphin  there  was 
a  similar  fight,  just  as  the  coffin  was  being  lowered  into 
the  vault,  for  the  ermine  and  gold  pall. 

The  last  stage  in  each  ceremony  for  a  king  or  an  enfant 
de  France  was  the  performance  for  the  last  time  by  each 
grand  officer  of  the  household  of  his  own  especial  function 
and  the  breaking  in  two  of  their  wands  of  office.  In 
Louis  XIV's  case  the  crown,  the  oriflamme  or  banner 
of  France,  the  mantle,  the  sceptre,  the  wand  of  justice, 
the  sword,  the  spurs,  the  coat  of  mail,  the  helmet,  the 
shield,  and  the  escutcheon  were  all  brought  separately 
and  solemnly  laid  in  the  vault.  Then  again  there  was  the 
triple  repetition  of  Le  roi  est  mort!  and  of  the  other  cry, 


204 


A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 


Vive  Louis  Quinze!  In  compliance  with  an  old  custom 
hundreds  of  birds  were  liberated  as  a  token  of  joy  at  the 
accession  of  the  new  King.  Like  liberated  birds,  too,  the 
court  took  their  flight  from  Versailles. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The   Regency 


Madame  writes  from  Paris  on  September  10:  "The 
whole  royal  household  is  scattered  like  starlings.  The 
young  King  drove  yesterday  to  Vincennes,  Madame  de 
Berry  to  St.  Cloud,  my  son  and  I  here,  my  son  having 
first  accompanied  the  King  to  Vincennes.  Where  all  the 
rest  have  gone  to,  I  do  not  know." 

It  was  in  the  Palais  Royal  that  Madame  and  her  son 
took  up  their  residence,  and  she  writes  that  her  son  has 
given  her  a  fine  new  apartment  incomparably  superior 
to  the  old  one.  She  detests  Paris,  however,  —  mainly, 
one  would  imagine,  because  she  is  so  frequently  inter- 
rupted in  letter-writing.  "I  began  to  write  this  morn- 
ing at  half-past  ten,"  she  says  in  this  same  first  letter 
from  Paris,  "but  have  only  been  able  to  write  the  few 

205 


206  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

lines  you  see ;  for  I  have  had  so  abominably  many  people 
that  my  whole  head  is  turning  as  though  I  were  drunk. 
I  hardly  know  what  I  am  doing  or  saying.  It  is  a  perfect 
torture  to  be  here." 

A  year  later  she  writes:  "It  is  true  that  here  in  Paris 
there  are  more  hindrances  to  writing  in  a  day  than  in  a 
week  at  Versailles.  Yesterday  I  had  twenty-nine  Ger- 
man princes,  counts,  and  nobles."  And  again:  "There 
come  a  lot  of  princes  now.  My  God,  how  often  one  is 
interrupted !" 

In  1718  she  writes :  "In  Paris  they  give  one  neither  peace 
nor  rest.  .  .  .  One  person  brings  a  petition,  another 
wishes  a  word  said  for  him ;  this  one  wants  an  audience, 
that  one  an  answer.  In  short,  I  am  unbearably  tormented 
there.  It  is  worse  than  ever.  .  .  .  They  are  very  much 
surprised  that  I  am  not  completely  charmed  with  all  this 
fuss  about  me;  but  I  must  confess  it  is  unendurable." 
She  is,  in  fact,  a  much  more  important  person  in  Paris 
than  she  had  been  in  Versailles,  or  at  least  has  more 
serious  duties  to  perform.  She  writes  of  laying  a  corner- 
stone, at  which  ceremony  she  is  received  with  drums, 
trumpets,  and  fifes  and  with  salvos  of  artillery.  She  sits 
on  a  raised  platform  in  an  arm-chair  and  with  a  canopy 
—  a  dais,  she  calls  it  —  over  her,  and  with  her  own  hand, 
smears  cement  on  a  stone.  "I  had  to  give  my  blessing," 
she  writes;  "that  made  me  laugh  —  it's  a  fine  thing,  my 
blessing!" 


a 
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THE  REGENCY  207 

Madame  remains  very  conservative  amid  her  new  sur- 
roundings. "I  see  many  men,  but  no  women,"  she  writes ; 
"they  will  not  come  to  me  because  I  cannot  endure  people 
coming  quite  bare-necked  and  in  echarpe,  like  Madame 
d'Orleans  and  Madame  de  Berry.  The  young  people 
do  not  know  what  respect  means;  they  never  saw  a 
proper  court.  I  confess  these  perfectly  disorderly  man- 
ners are  horribly  displeasing  to  me.  In  short,  dear  Louisa, 
everything  is  quite  disgusting,  and  I  wish  I  were  a  hun- 
dred miles  away.  ...  It  began  already  in  our  late  King's 
time.  His  Majesty  said  to  me:  'How  will  you  manage 
in  Paris?  Unless  you  put  up  with  the  ladies  in  robe  de 
chambre,  no  one  will  come  to  you.'  I  said,  'Sir,  I  pre- 
fer not  to  have  these  ladies,  rather  than  see  them  not 
render  me  my  due.'  The  King  said  :  'You  are  quite  right, 
Madame.  I  wish  Madame  d'Orleans  felt  the  same,  but 
she  is  too  horribly  lazy.'  So  I  keep  up  what  had  the 
King's  approval."  She  declares  that  the  robes  battantes 
seem  to  her  absolutely  insolent  and  remind  her  of  night- 
gowns. She  would  make  no  concession,  indeed,  to  any 
new  fashion  and  would  never  wear  a  panier.  Her  outer 
cloak  was  still  cut  on  the  model  of  that  of  the  first  Dau- 
phiness,  who  had  died  thirty  years  before.  She  was  laced 
daily  into  her  grand  habit  and  would  admit  no  one  not 
similarly  attired.  She  felt  quite  bitter  about  it ;  she  hoped 
that  the  ladies  might  one  day  be  made  to  pay  dearly  for 
their  laziness.     There  would  come  a  new  queen  who  would 


208  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD   REGIME 

insist  on  their  always  being  in  grand  habit,  and  this  would 
be  all  the  harder  for  them  because  of  their  present  laxness. 

Through  her  very  conservatism  Madame  grew  extremely 
popular  with  the  Parisians.  She  seems  to  have  repre- 
sented to  them  all  that  was  best  in  that  monarchy  which 
they  had  adored,  but  which,  by  its  extravagance  and  dis- 
soluteness, had  forfeited  much  of  their  respect.  She 
declares  that  they  are  grateful  to  her  for  her  observance 
of  old  customs  and  for  living  according  to  her  station; 
that  they  are  wont  to  curse  their  own  native  princes  and 
princesses,  but  that  on  her,  when  she  drives  through  the 
streets,  they  shower  nothing  but  blessings.  "I  return 
the  pleasant  feeling,"  she  writes,  "and  think  highly  of  the 
good  people."  And  again:  "The  French  are  so  accus- 
tomed to  have  women  meddle  in  everything  that  it 
seems  to  them  impossible  I  do  not  meddle  at  all;  and 
the  good  Parisians,  with  whom  I  am  in  favor,  try  to  as- 
cribe everything  that  is  good  to  me.  I  am  much  obliged 
to  the  poor  people  for  their  affection,  which  I  don't  in 
the  least  deserve."  She  does  meddle  more  than  she  did 
formerly,  especially  in  the  case  of  Protestants  who  had 
suffered  hardships. 

Once  Madame  found  herself  in  a  riot  in  which  many 
persons  were  killed.  She  kept  right  on  through  the  crowd, 
because,  she  writes,  "in  such  cases  you  must  never  seem 
to  be  afraid";  and  no  one  insulted  her.  "Had  I  not 
loved  them,"  she  writes  of  the  Parisians,  "I  should  never 


THE   REGENCY  209 

have  gone  to  live  among  them.  In  this  class  you  really 
do  find  people  who  are  faithful  to  their  wives.  A  servant 
of  mine  had  married  one  of  the  ugliest  women  in  the  world, 
a  woman  who  was  broader  than  she  was  long,  who  had  a 
face  like  a  toad  that  has  been  trodden  upon,  and  who 
talked  exactly  like  a  duck.  Yet  she  has  just  died,  and 
the  poor  man  is  in  absolute  despair." 

Madame  was  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Bubble  and  frequently  talked  with  John  Law.  She 
has  a  host  of  delicious  anecdotes  about  the  nouveaux  riches, 
of  which,  however,  we  can  give  but  one  specimen.  "All 
who  have  won  so  tremendously  in  the  shares,"  she  writes, 
"buy  up  everything  without  treating  or  bargaining. 
There  are  comical  stories.  The  other  day  when  a  lady 
was  at  the  opera,  she  saw  another  lady  come  in,  —  very 
ugly,  but  dressed  in  the  finest  material  in  the  world  and 
covered  with  diamonds.  Madame  Begon's  daughter 
turned  and  said  to  her  mother :  'Mother,  look  at  that  lady 
all  dressed  up.  It  seems  to  me  it  is  our  cook,  Marie.' 
The  mother  said,  'Hold  your  tongue,  daughter;  it  cannot 
be.'  The  daughter  repeated,  'Mother,  in  the  name  of 
God  look!'  The  mother  looked  at  her  closely  and  said, 
'I  don't  know  what  to  think;  she  does  look  very  much 
like  her.'  Every  one  in  the  amphitheatre  began  to 
whisper,  'Marie,  the  cook!'  She  stood  up  and  said  in  a 
very  loud  voice :  '  Well,  yes ;  I  am  Marie,  the  cook  of 
Madame  Begon.     I  have  grown  rich;  I  dress  on  my  own 


210  A   LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

money;  I  owe  nothing  to  any  one.  I  like  to  dress  up, 
I  do  dress  up.  That  harms  no  one.  Who  has  any  objec- 
tions to  make?'  You  can  imagine  what  a  burst  of 
laughter  there  was.     There  are  a  hundred  such  stories." 

Madame's  son  one  morning  increased  her  own  income 
by  150,000  livres  a  year,  and  he  distributed  2,000,000 
francs'  worth  of  shares  among  the  officers  and  chief  per- 
sons of  her  household.  She  is  naturally  wildly  enthu- 
siastic about  Law.  "My  son  has  found  an  Englishman 
named  Law,"  she  writes,  "who  understands  the  finances 
down  to  the  bottom.  .  .  .  Those  who  speak  ill  of  Mon- 
sieur Law  do  it  from  pure  envy;  for  nothing  could  be 
better.  He  pays  the  King's  abominable  debts  and  causes 
the  taxes  to  be  lowered.  .  .  .  Wood  costs  but  half 
what  it  did.  .  .  .  Monsieur  Law  is  a  very  polite,  good 
man;  I  think  a  great  deal  of  him.  He  does  me  favors 
whenever  he  can.  ...  I  always  say  the  way  things 
have  gone  under  my  son's  regency  is  unprecedented. 
One  cannot  say  with  Solomon  that  there  is  nothing  new 
under  the  sun ;  for  what  Monsieur  Law  is  doing  is  brand 
new." 

In  August,  1719,  Madame  writes :  "In  the  last  six  days 
nothing  has  happened  except  much  concerning  the  fi- 
nances, which  I  cannot  tell  you  about,  for  I  do  not  under- 
stand it.  I  only  know  that  my  son  has  found  means, 
together  with  an  Englishman  named  Monsieur  Law,  — 
but  the  French  call  him  Monsieur  Las,  —  to  pay  this  year 


yfarur  C/m  LatxQiois  J'ur  It  pthc  yont   «    la    Ccu-fHT    dCf$ 


The  Funeral  Ceremony  for  the  Due  and  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 


THE   REGENCY  211 

all  the  King's  debts,  which  amount  to  two  hundred  thou- 
sand million.  So  the  young  King  from  being  a  very  poor 
King  will  become  a  very  rich  one." 

Madame  means  2,000,000,000  francs,  which  is  enough, 
to  be  sure ;  and  the  Regent  really  did  pay  them,  but  with 
paper  money,  the  security  for  which  was  undeveloped 
land  along  the  Mississippi.  The  exploitation  of  this  was 
to  be  rendered  profitable  by  enormous  government  grants 
and  monopolistic  franchises.  The  military  commander 
of  those  parts  who  came  to  Paris  and  ventured  to 
criticise  the  scheme  was  clapped  into  the  Bastile.  Law 
was  made  Comptroller  of  the  Finances  of  the  kingdom, 
and  his  bank  farmed  the  state  revenues. 

The  Regent  spent  money  like  Haroun  al  Raschid, 
and  the  shares,  into  which  all  government  bonds  were 
made  convertible,  rose  to  2000  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Gold,  silver,  and  jewels  were  eagerly  bought  as  per- 
manent investments.  The  Regent  himself  bought,  for 
the  crown  a  great  diamond  that  now  bears  his  name, 
but  that  was  originally  known  as  the  "millionnaire." 
Madame  writes,  to  be  sure,  that  she  has  seen  a  finer  one 
in  the  hands  of  a  Jew  belonging  to  the  King  of  Poland. 
"I  mean,"  she  explains,  "that  the  Jew  belonged  to  the 
King  of  Poland,  not  the  diamond." 

"It  is  incredible  what  appalling  riches  there  now  are  in 
France,"  Madame  writes  in  December,  1719;  "one  hears 
them  talk  of  nothing  but  millions."     But  soon  again  she 


212  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

writes  that  she  does  not  understand  about  the  shares; 
that  "at  first  one  gained  a  great  deal  with  them,  but 
now  one  no  longer  gains  so  much."  Then  come  edicts  of 
which  she  disapproves.  People  seem  to  be  trying  to 
invest  all  their  money  in  gold,  silver,  jewels,  etc.,  and 
not  to  care  for  the  paper  money  and  shares.  Dangeau 
writes:  "It  is  said  that  foreigners  have  sold  jewels  here 
for  more  than  100,000,000  francs,  and  that  they  are 
preparing  to  have  others  come  that  they  would  sell  very 
dear."  Edicts  then  forbade  the  wearing  of  jewels,  the 
hoarding  of  gold,  and  even  the  manufacturing  of  gold 
articles  of  any  value.  Then  came  house-to-house  visita- 
tions in  search  of  gold  and  silver  coin,  it  having  been 
declared  that  the  paper  of  the  government  bank  was  good 
enough  for  any  one.  Saint-Simon  writes  sarcastically 
of  the  attempt  to  persuade  people  that  "since  Abraham 
paid  cash  down  for  a  field  for  the  burial  of  Sarah,  men  had 
been  in  the  greatest  error  regarding  money  and  metals, 
that  paper  alone  was  useful  and  necessary."  He  declares 
that  a  history  of  the  sudden  changes  of  fortune,  the  in- 
credible bargains,  the  immensity  of  the  gains,  the  fall  of 
those  thus  enriched,  the  ruin,  the  incurable  wounds  in- 
flicted on  the  country,  would  form  the  strangest  and 
most  amusing  history  ever  written. 

Mississippi  shares  went  down  from  2000  to  almost 
nothing.  Madame  writes  that  she  has  forbidden  her 
people  to  speak  to  her  of  the  accursed  things,  that  they 


THE  REGENCY  213 

are  as  distasteful  to  her  as  a  purging :  "I  don't  know  what 
'rising'  or  'falling'  means,  and  I  won't  learn.  .  .  .  Missis- 
sippi and  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  each  other ;  I  hate  it 
like  the  devil.  .  .  .  Monsieur  Law's  system  never  pleased 
me;  would  God  I  had  been  mistaken  about  it.  .  .  .  I 
always  wished  my  son  not  to  follow  it."  Which  was  not 
quite  literally  true. 

England,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  having  her  own 
similar  troubles  with  the  great  South  Sea  Bubble.  Ma- 
dame writes  in  November,  1720,  "God  pardon  me,  but  I 
must  confess  that  it  did  not  grieve  me  to  hear  about  the 
disorders  of  the  South  Sea  affair  since  things  had  gone 
so  wrong  here." 

But  her  natural  sense  of  humor,  which,  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  preceding  pages,  was  abnormally  developed,  will  not 
permit  of  her  keeping  to  herself  the  following  anecdote. 
It  is  about  the  King's  physician,  Dr.  Chirac.  He  "was 
called  to  see  a  lady,  and  while  he  was  in  her  bedchamber 
and  in  the  very  act  of  feeling  her  pulse,  he  heard  of  a  further 
fall  [in  the  shares].  He  could  not  refrain  from  moaning, 
'Ah,  good  God!  sinking,  sinking,  sinking!'  The  poor 
sick  lady,  hearing  this,  uttered  a  loud  shriek;  and  as  her 
people  ran  to  her  from  all  directions:  'Ah/  said  she,  'I 
shall  die !  Monsieur  de  Chirac  has  said  three  times  as  he 
felt  my  pulse,  "  Sinking,  sinking,  sinking  !"  '  The  doctor 
recovered  himself  and  said, '  You  are  dreaming ;  your  pulse 
is  quite  strong,  and  you  are  perfectly  well !' " 


214  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

But  Madame  has  more  serious  things  to  tell,  too :  of 
their  finding  at  one  time  twenty  dead  bodies  in  her  fish- 
pond at  St.  Cloud  of  people  who  had  been  murdered  for 
their  money.  "This  happens  almost  every  night,"  she 
writes,  meaning  that  some  one  is  murdered  daily.  In  July, 
1720,  she  complains  that  her  own  purveyors  refuse  to  pro- 
vide her  with  food  or  her  merchants  with  clothes  or  stock- 
ings because  she  has  no  ready  money. 

*-'*  fci*  «.L*  Mg  vj> 

*|>  *f*  ^>  r^  »J» 

As  the  years  went  on  death,  of  course,  grew  busier  and 
busier  with  those  who  had  been  at  the  great  King's  court. 

The  exiled  Queen  of  England  died  in  May,  1718.  "To- 
day I  write  you  with  a  very  sad  heart,"  says  Madame,  on 
May  8,  "and  I  wept  yesterday  absolutely  the  whole  day. 
For  yesterday  morning  at  seven  o'clock  the  good,  pious, 
virtuous  Queen  of  England  died  at  St.  Germain.  She 
must  be  in  heaven,  for  she  did  not  keep  a  farthing  for  her- 
self, but  gave  all  to  the  poor ;  she  supported  whole  fami- 
lies. She  never  spoke  ill  of  any  one  in  her  life,  and  if  one 
wanted  to  tell  her  stories  about  any  one,  she  would  say, 
'If  it  is  anything  bad,  please  don't  tell  me;  I  don't  like 
stories  that  attack  the  reputation.'  She  bore  her  mis- 
fortunes with  the  greatest  patience  in  the  world,  and  that 
not  from  foolishness ;  for  she  had  much  intelligence,  was 
polite  and  agreeable,  although  not  handsome.  She  was 
always  merry,  laughed  and  chaffed  in  a  perfect  manner, 
and  always  praised  our  Princess  of  Wales  very  much.' 


The  Exiled  Queen  of  England 


THE  REGENCY  215 

On  May  29:  "I  never  pass  byChaillot  without  shudder- 
ing to  think  that  the  virtuous  and  amiable  Queen  is  lying 
up  there  dead  in  the  choir  of  the  nuns  —  it  will  be  long 
before  I  get  her  out  of  my  mind.  .  .  .  The  Queen  died  with 
hearty  joy  and  publicly  thanked  God  for  releasing  her  from 
this  life.  I  am  quite  of  your  opinion,  dear  Louisa,  that 
the  Queen  was  more  of  a  saint  than  her  late  husband.  .  . . 
The  Queen  had  great  constancy  and  right  royal  qualities, 
great  nobility,  generosity,  politeness,  an  agreeable  intelli- 
gence, was  absolutely  always  merry,  and  could  banter 
very  nicely.  She  always  bantered  me  with  my  passion  for 
seeing  plays  and  acknowledged  that  she  had  been  so  her- 
self. She  never  complained,  and  laughed  heartily  because 
for  a  time  she  could  not  drive  out  for  the  reason  that  her 
horses  had  died,  and  she  had  no  money  to  buy  others.  She 
laughed  over  her  royal  condition,  how  magnificent  it  was, 
and  how  all  the  grandeur  of  this  world  is  only  vanity. 
She  knew  how  to  turn  that  very  prettily  and  without 
bitterness." 

The  " Queen  of  England"  might  well  banter  Madame 
about  going  to  plays,  for  she  went  to  everything  that  came 
along.  She  could  enter  the  theatre  by  a  private  passage 
from  the  Palais  Royal.  She  particularly  loved  sad  plays. 
" Iphigenie  is  a  very  touching  piece,"  she  once  wrote;  "it 
has  often  made  me  weep,  and  if  I  did  not  find  myself 
softened  and  touched  by  plays,  I  should  not  enjoy  them  at 
all." 


216  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

Madame  de  Maintenon  died  early  in  1719 ;  Madame  had 
just  closed  and  sealed  a  letter  when  she  heard  the  news; 
she  wrote  in  her  large  firm  hand  across  the  cover:  "This 
morning  I  learn  that  the  old  Maintenon  went  round  the 
corner  yesterday  between  four  and  five  in  the  evening; 
what  a  blessing  if  this  had  happened  thirty  and  some  years 
ago  ! "  She  writes  in  the  same  strain  in  another  letter ; 
and  one  sees  what,  after  all  these  years,  she  considers  the 
woman's  one  unpardonable  sin:  "I  fear  that  the  Mainte- 
non's  death,  like  that  of  the  Gorgon  Medusa,  will  produce 
many  more  monsters.  Had  she  died  thirty  and  some 
years  ago,  all  the  poor  Protestants  [" reformed,"  she  calls 
them]  would  still  be  in  France,  and  their  church  at 
Charenton  would  not  be  razed  to  the  ground.  The  'old 
witch,'  as  the  Grand  Duchess  used  to  call  her,  has  done 
all  that  with  the  Jesuit  Pere  la  Chaise.  .  .  .  Those  two 
have  done  all  that." 

Very  opposite  opinions  were  and  still  are  held  about 
Madame  de  Maintenon.  Dangeau  wrote  in  his  diary  in 
connection  with  her  death:  "She  was  a  woman  of  such 
great  merits,  who  had  done  so  much  good  and  prevented 
so  much  evil  in  the  time  of  her  favor,  that  one  cannot  say 
too  much  for  her."  But  Saint-Simon  wrote  opposite  this 
passage  in  his  copy  of  Dangeau:  "That  is  what  I  call  a 
flat,  dirty,  stinking  lie  in  the  throat !  This  fatal  woman 
did  great  harm  to  France  .  .  .  and  caused  great  relief  by 
her  death." 


THE  REGENCY  217 

Madame  de  Berry,  as  first  lady  in  France,  played  some- 
thing of  a  role  under  the  Regency.  She  was  magnificent  in 
all  her  doings,  even  in  her  devotions.  Madame  declares 
that  at  the  Carmelite  convent  where  Madame  de  Berry 
went  into  retirement  at  Easter  time  she  has  seen  the 
nuns  perfectly  bathed  in  tears  because  of  the  fervor  with 
which  her  Grace  went  to  communion.  Madame  has  to  add, 
however,  that  her  granddaughter's  good  resolutions  sel- 
dom last,  and  that  "the  devil  will  come  back  into  the  swept 
house  with  seven  evil  spirits  worse  than  the  first."  Ma- 
dame de  Berry  surrounded  herself  with  guards,  had  a 
royal  canopy  placed  over  her  box  at  the  opera,  once 
walked  out  on  the  quay  preceded  by  drummers,  and, 
once  again,  received  ambassadors  on  a  regular  throne. 
Her  pride  and  arrogance  were  the  talk  of  Paris. 

In  1719  Madame's  daughter  came  back  from  Lorraine  to 
visit  her  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years.  As  the  sister 
of  the  Regent  of  France  she  was  royally  received,  and  by 
way  of  a  new  and  pleasant  experience,  was  even  allowed  to 
pardon  a  soldier  who  was  just  about  to  be  hung  at  the  end 
of  the  Pont  Neuf.  The  Duchesse  de  Berry  outdid  herself 
in  showing  her  attentions. 

The  Duchesse  de  Lorraine  found  in  her  room  a  commode 
stuffed  with  rare  fabrics,  shawls,  and  ribbons  such  as  the 
King  had  been  wont  to  dispense.  Then  Madame  de  Berry 
gave  her  a  fete  in  her  palace,  the  Luxemburg,  that  surpassed 
anything  seen  for  years.     More  than  a  thousand  birds 


218  A   LADY  OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

of  various  kinds  had  been  slaughtered  for  the  collation, 
and  each  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  guests  who  sat  down 
to  dinner  had  a  separate  domestic  to  fill  his  or  her  glass. 
The  Duchesse  de  Berry  herself  was  in  a  robe  of  gold,  and 
her  head-dress  glittered  all  over  with  diamonds.  After  the 
collation  the  brilliantly  lighted  palace  was  practically 
thrown  open  to  the  public,  for  any  one  properly  dressed 
and  masked  might  enter.  It  was  a  Belshazzar's  feast,  for 
the  Duchesse  de  Berry  was  taken  ill  not  so  very  long  after. 
Madame  tells  us  she  has  been  to  see  her,  that  she  is  suf- 
fering "  like  a  damned  soul "  and  has  no  rest  day  or  night ; 
"they  call  Madame  de  Berry's  illness  gouty  rheumatism." 

Madame  unbends  enough  to  say  of  the  daughter-in-law 
she  has  all  these  years  so  bitterly  detested,  "I  am  sorry  for 
the  mother,  too."  And  she  actually  said  of  poor  Madame 
d'Orleans  one  day,  "To  tell  the  truth,  she  is  very  humble 
towards  me,  and  we  get  on  very  well  together." 

Madame  de  Berry's  end  was  most  edifying.  Madame 
writes:  "She  said  yesterday  she  was  glad  to  die  because 
she  had  made  her  peace  with  God,  and  should  she  live 

* 

longer,  she  might  sin  again.  She  preferred  to  die.  This 
touched  us  all  unutterably.  She  really  is  a  good  creature. 
Had  her  mother  taken  pains  to  bring  her  up  better,  she 
would  have  turned  out  absolutely  well.  I  confess  her  loss 
goes  straight  to  my  heart  and  saddens  my  soul." 

She  gives  horrible  details  of  what  the  doctors  found 
when  they  "opened ".Madame  de  Berry :  "Her  spleen  was 


^^  /      .     •   .  ■ '     Liu    :   ^,3 

\*c  .y'tAtfvtir-J^n.,*  ef ■  I»Ji.t .  vAc  On.  y2   m.,y27-r  wire    .,.l,n,lt.:l  iy   A.  >■  ■  H.ij.,1. 
,:»...,  sf  i-.r-.,,/    %¥it*ny,Jbtyni*    «A'</'.n.;     .,.,.„»<?/■    Tract,   ,»  .  /»„.,../  /,/»„» 


An  Indian  of  Madamk's  Time 


THE   REGENCY  219 

perfectly  rotted,  had  become  like  mush;  her  head  was 
full  of  water,  and  half  of  the  brain  was  gone."  Unfor- 
tunately Madame  de  Berry's  complete  moral  rottenness 
came  to  light  at  about  the  same  time,  and  Madame  writes 
these  terrible  words :  "The  best  thing  is  that  no  one  talks 
any  more  about  the  poor  Duchesse  de  Berry ;  would  God  I 
had  less  reason  to  be  consoled  over  her  death  !  It  is  worse 
than  you  could  imagine  it  in  your  life !" 

Madame  writes  about  this  time  :  "There  are  many  royal 
persons  who  have  been  badly  brought  up  in  their  youth ; 
being  taught  only  their  grandeur,  but  not  that  they  are 
mere  human  beings  like  others,  and  that  with  all  their  gran- 
deur they  are  nothing  at  all  if  they  have  not  good  char- 
acters and  do  not  strive  after  virtue.  I  once  read  in  a  book 
that  such  ones  are  to  be  likened  to  sows  with  gold  neck- 
laces. That  struck  me  as  comical  and  made  me  laugh,  but 
it  is  not  badly  said." 

Madame  had  certainly  had  experience  enough  of  evil 
in  her  life.  She  once  said  to  her  father  confessor,  who  was 
trying  to  explain  away  the  infidelities  of  her  own  son-in- 
law,  the  Due  de  Lorraine,  "My  Father,  tell  that  to  the 
monks  of  your  monastery,  who  see  life  through  the  neck  of 
a  bottle,  but  do  not  tell  it  to  us  people  of  the  court."  But 
now  she  really  is  aghast  at  the  morals  of  the  Regency  and 
writes  :  "I  wonder  all  France  does  not  fall  like  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  .  .  .  Every  time  there  is  a  thunderstorm  I 
dread  the  fall  of  Paris."    She  had  even  feared  for  her  own 


220  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

daughter's  morals  on  coming  suddenly  into  such  a  sink 
of  iniquity,  but  is  delighted  to  find  that  the  Duchesse  de 
Lorraine  has  not  the  least  inclination  to  gallantry  or 
debauchery.  The  visit  is  a  pure  joy.  Madame  writes  in 
March,  1718:  "Immediately  after  dinner  I  am  going  to 
prayers  in  the  Carmelite  convent,  and  when  I  come  back 
I  must  go  to  the  opera,  where  I  only  go  in  order  to  talk 
with  my  daughter.  For  we  sit  next  to  each  other,  and  the 
noise  of  the  opera  prevents  any  one  from  hearing  us.  So 
the  opera  box  is  the  most  comfortable  place  for  talking 
together.  .  .  .  What  one  daily  hears  and  sees  here  is 
indescribable,  and  that  from  the  highest  in  rank.  In 
my  daughter's  time  it  was  not  the  custom;  she  is  in  a 
state  of  wonder  and  cannot  get  over  all  that  she  hears  and 
sees.  Her  astonishment  often  makes  me  laugh.  In  espe- 
cial she  cannot  get  used  to  seeing  ladies  with  great 
names,  in  the  middle  of  the  opera  house,  lie  in  the  laps 
of  men  who  are  said  not  to  hate  them.  My  daughter 
calls  out  to  me,  c  Madame,  Madame  !'  I  say:  'What  can 
I  do  about  it,  my  daughter?  Those  are  the  manners  of 
the  times/  'But  they  are  villainous,'  says  my  daughter; 
and  that  is  true." 

Madame's  letters,  as  time  goes  on,  grow  longer  and 
longer.  Her  interest  in  the  things  about  her  remains  very 
keen.  Her  glance  even  roams  across  the  ocean.  She 
talks  of  the  exiles  from  the  Palatinate  who  had  settled  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  thinks  they  would  come  back  if  they 


THE  REGENCY  221 

were  better  treated  at  home.  She  hears  of  an  Indian 
prince  and  princess.  "If  they  are  painted  with  all  sorts 
of  colors,"  she  writes,  "they  must  be  American  savages. 
But  those  people  have  neither  princes  nor  nobles.  All  are 
considered  equal  except  the  leaders  in  war.  Them  they 
obey  only  so  long  as  the  war  continues,  when  they  be- 
come like  the  rest  again.  We  have  very  often  some  of 
these  savages  here,  so  I  know  very  well  what  goes  on 
among  the  Americans.  I  have  a  woman  of  the  bedcham- 
ber who  married  a  French  nobleman  named  Longueil 
who  has  estates  in  Canada,  and  is  in  the  royal  service 
there.  She  and  two  of  her  sisters,  who  are  now  all  dead, 
were  among  my  women  of  the  bedchamber ;  her  father  and 
her  older  brother  were  my  apothecaries.  She  was  here 
twenty-three  years  ago.  She  told  me  all  about  the  life 
of  their  wild  men;  so  I  know  it  through  and  through, 
and  no  sea-captain  had  better  get  off  any  of  his  yarns 
on  me." 

Madame's  thoughts  frequently  revert  to  the  past. 
She  tells  of  a  visit  to  the  country  place  of  one  of  her 
former  ladies  who  had  grown  very  rich  through  the 
Mississippi  shares.  "She  caught  me  finely,"  Madame 
writes ;  "she  said  to  me  quite  dryly,  'To  judge  by  the  talk 
of  those  who  come  through  the  woods  to-day,  it  may 
be  well  to  listen ;  for  there  are  people  eating  and  drink- 
ing there,  and  they  say  there  is  even  music.'  I  hurried 
along,    believing   that,    as   often   happens,    there   really 


222  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD  REGIME 

were  people  feasting  in  the  woods.  As  I  came  up  I  did, 
in  fact,  see  a  table  set  out  and  seven  or  eight  fellows 
sitting  there,  eating,  drinking,  and  singing.  They  rose; 
when  they  turned  round,  I  saw  that  it  was  the  violins 
from  the  King's  music.  Then  I  realized  that  it  had 
all  been  arranged  beforehand.  They  played,  and  ex- 
ceptionally well.  But  it  reminded  me  so  much  of  by- 
gone days  and  of  the  fetes  that  we  had  on  the  canal 
when  the  King  and  Queen  were  alive  that  the  thought 
of  it  brought  tears  to  my  eyes.  I  must  confess  that 
music  no  longer  makes  me  gay,  but  only  brings  sad 
memories.     But  come,  let  us  talk  of  something  else!" 

No  account  of  Madame's  life  would  be  complete  with- 
out a  word  as  to  one  of  her  most  agitating  experiences, 
the  Spanish  plot  to  remove  her  son  from  the  Regency 
and  replace  him  by  that  Philip  V,  second  son  of  the 
Due  de  Bourgogne,  whom  we  saw  in  December,  1700, 
quitting  France  for  his  new  country  amid  the  lamenta- 
tions of  the  court.  Into  the  intrigues  of  the  Spanish 
prime  minister,  Alberoni,  and  the  negotiations  regarding 
the  Quadruple  Alliance  we  need  not  enter.  Alberoni  had 
plunged  Spain  into  a  war  with  England,  but  the  Regent 
hesitated  to  follow  England's  example,  because  he  feared 
that  the  war  would  be  unpopular  in  France.  Then  the 
so-called  Cellamare  conspiracy  came  to  light,  Cellamare 
being  the  ambassador  of  Philip  V  in  Paris. 

Madame  writes  in  this  connection  in  December,  1718: 


< 

fa 


H 

H 


I 

H 


H 
Z 

W 

s 
H 


THE  REGENCY  223 


u 


I  must  tell  you  what  my  heart  is  quite  full  of,  and  what 
worries  me  greatly ;  namely,  the  abominable  treason  they 
discovered  last  Thursday  against  my  son.  I  will  tell 
you  how  it  came  about.  An  English  bankrupt,  or  one 
who  gave  himself  out  for  such,  wished  to  go  to  Spain ; 
they  asked  my  son  to  arrest  him.  The  same  fellow, 
whom  they  caught  near  Poitiers,  had  secret  despatches 
from  the  Spanish  ambassador  here.  You  can  well 
imagine  that  they  at  once  opened  the  letters.  They 
found  that  the  ambassador  had  written  to  Alberoni  to 
be  on  his  guard  against  making  a  treaty  with  my  son, 
for  as  soon  as  the  treaty  was  signed  my  son  would  poison 
the  young  King.  But  he,  the  ambassador,  would  give 
my  son  so  much  to  do  that  he  could  not  think  of  going 
to  war;  he  would  raise  up  revolts  against  him  all  over 
the  kingdom,  nobles  were  to  be  sent  into  all  the  prov- 
inces to  rouse  them  up;  their  party  was  strong  enough 
in  Paris.  They,  the  Spaniards,  only  needed  to  send 
money  without  stint;  he  already  had  people  on  hand  to 
whom  to  give  it. 

"I  am  very  much  afraid  my  son's  wife's  lame  brother 
will  again  be  found  to  be  mixed  up  in  this  matter.  My 
son  has  had  the  ambassador  and  two  councillors  of  state 
arrested.  .  .  .  They  talk  of  nothing  here  but  of  the 
conspiracy.  It  makes  one's  hair  stand  on  end  to  find 
what  persons  are  concerned.  ...  I  see  my  son's  life 
endangered  from  on  all  sides,  as  you  will  see  from  these 


224  A  LADY  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

two  printed  letters  which  were  found  in  the  Spanish 
ambassador's  packet." 

On  December  29  Madame  writes  the  following,  and 
it  will  be  remembered  that  the  Due  du  Maine  was  that 
son  of  the  King  and  of  Madame  de  Montespan  whom 
Madame  had  so  dreaded  as  a  possible  son-in-law,  al- 
though he  was  the  richest  prince  in  France ;  also,  that 
the  Due  du  Maine  was  the  Regent's  enemy  because  the 
latter  in  1717  had  caused  the  parlement  to  revoke  the 
decree  of  Louis  XIV,  enabling  his  bastards  to  succeed 
to  the  throne:  "I  wanted  to  write  to  you  two  hours 
ago,  but  I  could  not ;  for  I  am  so  dreadfully  upset  that 
my  hand  trembles.  My  son  has  come  to  tell  me  that 
at  last  he  has  had  to  have  his  wife's  brother,  the  Due 
du  Maine,  and  the  latter's  wife  placed  under  arrest, 
for  they  are  the  heads  of  the  abominable  Spanish  con- 
spiracy. Everything  is  discovered ;  they  have  it  in 
letters  in  the  handwriting  of  the  Spanish  ambassador 
himself,  and  the  prisoners  have  all  confessed.  So  it  is 
only  too  true  that  the  Due  du  Maine  is  the  head  of  the 
conspiracy,  and  my  son  has  been  compelled  to  arrest 
him  and  his  wife  and  all  their  people.  The  wife,  as  a 
princesse  du  sang,  has  been  arrested  by  one  of  the  King's 
four  captains  of  the  guards;  but  her  husband,  who  was 
in  the  country,  they  have  had  arrested  by  a  simple  lieu- 
tenant of  the  guards.  That  makes  a  great  difference 
between  the  two.     Madame  du  Maine  has  been  taken 


THE   REGENCY  225 

to  Dijon  in  Bourgogne  in  her  nephew's  gouvernement. 
Her  husband  they  have  taken  to  Dourlan  to  a  small 
fortress;  and  their  servants  who  are  in  the  conspiracy 
have  all  been  taken  to  the  Bastile.  You  see,  then,  dear 
Louisa,  that  all  this  is  horrible  enough.  But  I  must 
quickly  dress  and  go  down  to  Madame  d'Orleans,  for  she 
is  sure  to  be  very  much  upset.  .  .  . 

"My  heart  is  so  heavy  at  having  seen  so  many  sad 
people  to-day  that  I  can  hardly  write.  Madame  d'Or- 
leans I  found  very  sad,  but  much  more  reasonable  than 
Madame  la  Princesse.  She  says  she  cannot  doubt, 
since  my  son  shows  such  severity  to  her  brother,  he 
must  have  found  great  cause  against  him  and  his  wife, 
but  that  she  has  no  reason  to  complain  because  of  that. 
But  Madame  la  Princesse  insists  that  it  is  impossible  her 
daughter  and  her  daughter's  husband  could  have  done 
anything  wrong.  She  makes  one  quite  impatient,  for 
whatever  one  may  say  to  her  about  this  affair,  that 
they  have  the  handwriting  of  the  ambassador  who  men- 
tions him  and  his  wife  by  name,  that  the  others  have 
confessed,  it  is  all  of  no  avail :  enemies  have  done  this, 
and  her  children  are  innocent.  .  .  .  You  will  soon  hear 
abominable  stories  from  Berlin.  I  imagine  some  devils 
have  ridden  out  of  hell  into  the  air  and  want  to  start 
conspiracies." 

In  January  she  writes  of  her  son:  "I  never  see  him 
drive  out  without  trembling  lest  they  bring  him  home 


226  A   LADY   OF  THE  OLD  REGIME 

dead."  She  speaks  of  the  Due  and  Duchesse  du  Maine, 
Madame  de  Maintenon  and  the  Princesse  des  Ursins, 
Alberoni  and  Cellamare,  as  "two  little  devils  led  by  two 
old  witches  and  upheld  by  two  arch  rogues." 

In  February  she  writes:  "King  Philip  is  not  dead,  but 
very  ill.  This  King  is  a  good  man,  but  most  stubborn. 
If  they  once  put  something  into  his  head,  no  devil  can 
get  it  out  of  him.  The  Princesse  des  Ursins  has  put  it 
into  his  head  that  my  son  was  trying  to  take  his  life. 
No  one  can  rid  him  of  that  idea,  so  he  hates  my  son 
abominably.  War  has  been  declared  against  Spain  here, 
as  well  as  in  England." 

It  came  out  in  time  that  the  guilt  of  the  conspiracy 
rested  almost  wholly  with  Madame  du  Maine.  Some 
months  later  she  made  a  confession  which,  to  her  anger 
and  surprise,  was  read  in  council.  Madame  writes  in 
January,  1720:  "Madame  du  Maine  has  entirely  cleared 
her  husband  and  confesses  that  she  began  the  conspiracy 
in  his  name  without  his  knowing  a  word  about  it.  All 
the  other  conspirators  who  were  put  in  the  Bastile  say 
the  same  thing,  so  it  must  be  true,  though  it  is  hard  to 
believe.  .  .  .  She  is  desperate  about  my  son  having 
had  her  confession  read  in  council.  But  could  the  crazy 
beast  think  my  son  would  take  everything  on  himself 
for  her  sake,  as  though  he  had  invented  the  conspiracy, 
and  declare  her  perfectly  innocent?  .  .  .  Alberoni  has 
written  to  my  son  and  asked  to  be  forgiven.  .  .  .     He 


2 
■4 


H 

H 

H 

O 

o 

ft 

—1 
H 

a 


a 
i 


THE  REGENCY  227 

offers  to  reveal  everything  and  to  give  my  son  the  means 
of  obtaining  all  Spain,  saying  that  he  knows  just  where 
lies  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  kingdom.  Is 
not  that  a  pretty  set  of  fellows?" 

The  Spanish  troubles  ended  in  1720  with  a  peace 
which  was  to  be  sealed  by  a  marriage  alliance  between  the 
little  King,  Louis  XV,  and  a  still  smaller  daughter  of 
Philip  V.  The  little  infanta,  only  four  years  old,  was 
sent  to  be  brought  up  at  the  French  court.  Madame, 
with  her  coach  filled  with  princesses  of  the  blood,  drove 
fifteen  miles  to  meet  her.  A  contemporary  engraving 
shows  the  triumphal  entry  of  the  little  lady  into  Paris. 
Another  engraving  shows  the  meeting  between  the  little 
King  and  his  intended  bride.  Although  the  latter  was 
only  four  years  old,  Madame  fell  completely  in  love 
with  her.  "She  is  too  comical  with  the  King,"  she 
writes;  "she  will  say,  'I  find  him  handsome,  well  made, 
with  fine  hair;  but  I  know  very  well  that  if  he  does  not 
talk  to  me  more  than  he  does,  my  affection  for  him 
will  diminish."  Again  she  would  say  to  Madame,  "I 
have  a  little  secret  to  tell  you";  and  as  the  old  lady 
bent  down  she  would  throw  her  arms  about  her  neck 
and  kiss  her  on  both  cheeks. 

Madame  has  much  to  do  in  these  days.  She  receives  so 
many  distinguished  people  —  people  for  whom  etiquette 
demands  her  rising  —  that  her  knees,  to  quote  her  own 
remark,  creak  like  an  old  cart.     She  has  to  appear  in  an 


228  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

entirely  new  role :  at  a  banquet  in  the  Palais  Royal  in 
honor  of  the  alliance  with  Spain  she  has  to  rise  and  make 
several  speeches.  That  she  acquitted  herself  with  credit, 
no  one  can  doubt.  She  went  to  a  ball,  too,  and  sat  with 
her  son  on  a  raised  platform  at  one  end  of  the  hall.  The 
little  King  wore  4,000,000  francs'  worth  of  jewels,  in- 
cluding the  Regent  diamond.  After  all,  the  marriage 
never  took  place,  and  the  little  infanta,  after  occupying 
the  royal  apartments  at  Versailles  for  three  years,  was 
shipped  back  to  Spain  by  the  Regent's  successor. 

*«JL*  Mi  vt*  vl*  »t> 

^J*  ^^  *^»  *J*  J[5 

In  1722  Madame  had  a  serious  accident.  She  had,  as 
we  know,  always  dreaded  doctors  and  hated  bleeding.  "I 
like  doctors  who  are  careful  with  their  patients,  and  try 
to  follow  nature,"  she  had  written  in  1709;  "to-morrow 
a  new  doctor  is  to  take  his  oath  of  allegiance  to  me,  a 
young  man  of  forty-two.  This  is  the  fourth  doctor  I 
have  had  since  I  have  been  in  France,  and  he  will  prob- 
ably be  the  end  of  me  because  I  am  nearly  fifteen  years 
older  than  he."  And  again,  prophetically  as  it  turned 
out:  "If  our  hour  has  not  struck,  the  physicians  will 
show  skill ;  but  if  it  has  come,  they  will  be  blinded  and 
do  the  contrary  to  what  will  help."  She  tells  of  her 
cousin,  the  Due  de  Tremouille :  "I  am  persuaded  that 
he  is  dying,  not  from  his  lung  trouble,  but  of  the  nine 
bleedings  they  have  given  him  in  two  days."  And 
again,   a  few  days  later:    "The  doctors  bled  him,  the 


1 

1  -i 

•»  .. 

J 

> 

X 


& 

o 

0 

is 

o 

PS 

o 

H 
X 
H 


THE   REGENCY  229 

Due  de  Tremouille,  ten  times,  so  frightfully  that  when  they 
opened  him,  they  found  no  other  cause  of  death  in  him  save 
that  he  had  not  a  single  drop  of  blood  left  in  his  veins." 

Madame  had  long  resisted,  but  at  last  had  been  in- 
duced to  let  them  bleed  her  at  intervals,  because,  as  she 
tells  us,  if  she  did  not,  those  who  had  bought  posts  in 
her  household  sat  round  in  despair  for  fear  she  should 
die,  and  they  lose  their  investment.  She  was  not  ill, 
but  the  doctors  had  told  her  that  one  really  must  be 
bled  in  May  in  order  to  remain  healthy  for  the  rest  of 
the  year.  Her  barber,  she  writes,  was  a  good  blood- 
letter,  and  had  bled  her  before.  But  now  as  he  was 
drawing  the  second  plateful  he  suddenly  began  to  look 
like  grim  death,  tottered,  and  fell  down  in  a  swoon.  He 
recovered  enough  to  bind  her  arm,  but  did  it  so  badly 
that  she  lost  quantities  of  blood.  She  fell  asleep,  but 
on  waking,  knocked  her  arm  against  the  table.  The  vein 
opened,  and  she  lost  a  plateful  more. 

She  wrote  after  this  that  she  would  have  nothing 
more  to  do  with  the  " French  tricks"  of  blood  letting  and 
purging,  that  they  did  not  suit  a  Rauschenblattknechtchen 
at  all:  "I  have  said  farewell  to  all  these  works  of  the 
devil."  But  it  was  too  late.  There  followed  a  time  of 
fearful  weakness;  she  is  "tired  as  a  poor  dog,"  she 
writes.  When  she  tries  to  kneel  in  chapel,  she  has  not* 
strength  to  do  it :  "Even  to  walk  the  length  of  the  room 
makes  me  snort  as  if  I  had  been  chasing  a  hare." 


230  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

Yet  the  King's  coronation  was  coming.  She  was  once 
more,  since  the  Duchesse  de  Berry's  death,  the  first 
lady  in  France.  She  was  the  only  representative  in  the 
royal  family  of  the  real  old  regime.  She  declared  that 
should  God  prolong  her  life  until  the  15th  of  October, 
she  meant  to  travel  to  Rheims.  She  took  the  greatest 
interest  in  the  preparations.  They  brought  the  crown 
and  showed  it  to  her,  and  she  went  into  ecstasies  over 
it.  She  considered  it  "the  most  beautiful,  splendid,  and 
magnificent  thing  in  the  whole  world."  From  a  gorgeous 
setting  of  pearls  and  topazes,  emeralds  and  rubies  shone 
forth  the  Regent  diamond,  while  above  was  an  even 
finer  one,  the  great  pear-shaped  Sancy. 

Barbier,  the  famous  chronicler  of  the  reign  of  Louis 
XV,  was  another  person  who  was  given  a  private  view 
of  the  crown.  He  writes:  "A  few  days  ago,  through 
friends,  I  saw  at  Monsieur  Rondet's,  the  King's  jeweller, 
the  crown  that  has  been  made  for  the  coronation  of 
Louis  XV.  It  is  the  most  brilliant  thing  and  the  most 
perfect  piece  of  work  that  has  ever  been  seen.  It  has 
eight  branches,  the  lower  part  forming  a  fleur-de-lis  of 
diamonds,  and  above,  all  by  itself,  is  a  great  fleur-de-lis 
in  the  air.  The  diamond  called  Sancy,  which  was  the 
finest  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV,  forms  the  top  of  the 
fleur-de-lis,  and  there  are  four  other  large  diamonds 
which  form  the  leaves.  Directly  in  front  is  the  large 
diamond  which  the  Regent  bought  for  the  King.     It  is 


s 

X 
0 


X 

OS 

3 
O 

O 

w 

a 
s 
H 


THE   REGENCY  231 

of  surprising  size;  they  call  it  the  'Millionnaire.'  It  is 
worth  three  millions  [we  have  a  later  inventory  in  which 
it  was  valued  at  twelve  millions].  They  say  the  Grand 
Mogul  has  no  larger  one.  They  say,  also  but  I  do  not 
know  if  it  is  true,  that  the  man  who  brought  it,  not  to 
be  taken  by  surprise,  had  his  thigh  opened,  and  that 
they  put  it  there,  encased  in  lead,  and  that  when  he  was 
here,  he  had  his  thigh  opened  again.  It  is  certainly 
larger  than  a  pigeon's  egg.  At  the  same  time  I  saw 
the  coach  which  the  King  has  had  made  for  his  entry 
into  Rheims,  which  will  also  be  of  great  magnificence. 
The  interior  is  all  upholstered  with  flowered  velvet  and 
gold  Spanish  point  lace.  I  also  saw  the  golden  nef 
which  serves  at  the  consecration  for  the  King's  dinner, 
and  in  which  they  put  his  whole  convert.  It  is  a  fine 
piece  of  work.  Louis  XIV  had  it  made  more  than  fifty 
years  ago  for  the  consecration  of  kings.  It  weighs,  they 
say,  a  hundred  and  seven  marks.  Everything  at  Rheims 
will  be  of  an  astonishing  magnificence.  The  troops  are 
all  dressed  in  new  uniforms.  There  will  be  about  ten 
thousand  men.  Of  the  lords  only  those  go  who  have 
been  appointed,  and  they  will  vie  with  each  other  in 
being  magnificently  dressed.  .  .  .  The  King  left  for 
Rheims  on  the  24th  of  October.  He  passed  through 
Paris,  with  all  his  household  in  new  clothes,  and  very 
magnificent  ones."  An  engraving  shows  him  being  re- 
ceived by  the  magistrates  at  Rheims. 


232  A   LADY   OF   THE   OLD   REGIME 

Meanwhile,  though  weaker  than  ever,  Madame  had 
dragged  herself  about,  and  had  even  driven  to  Ver- 
sailles to  see  their  little  Majesties.  But  she  wrote  that 
it  seemed  strange  to  her  to  see  only  children  instead  of 
the  King  whom  she  had  so  dearly  loved.  She  stood  at 
the  side  of  the  bed  where  she  had  seen  him  in  his  last 
agony,  and  where  he  had  shown  her  so  much  kindness. 
She  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  the  world,  she  writes, 
in  keeping  back  the  blinding  tears. 

She  would  have  stayed  in  Versailles,  but  she  found  her 
apartment  in  ruins,  the  floor  of  her  hall  of  guards  having 
fallen  through.     So  she  returned  to  Paris. 

She  tells  of  a  touching  demonstration  in  her  honor 
there.  When  she  went  to  the  opera  for  the  first  time 
since  her  illness,  she  found  the  auditorium  full  to  over- 
flowing. They  came  and  told  her  it  was  all  for  her  sake, 
as  a  token  of  joy  at  seeing  her  again.  "I  am  much  in 
favor  with  the  good  Parisians,"  she  wrote  the  next  day 
to  Louisa;  "I  am  sorry  the  air  is  bad  for  me,  or  I  would 
give  the  good,  honest  people  more  chances  to  see  me." 
And  again,  "They  do  me  more  honor  in  Paris  than  I 
deserve." 

The  going  to  Rheims  meant  everything  to  her.  She 
had  often  complained  bitterly  that  there  was  no  longer 
any  court  in  France,  and  had  declared  that  one  who 
was  accustomed  to  that  atmosphere  could  never  live  in 
any  other. 


THE   REGENCY  233 

Now  she  was  like  a  splendid  old  war-horse  scent- 
ing the  battle  from  afar.  "I  can  get  to  heaven 
from  Rheims,"  she  writes,  "as  well  as  from  anywhere 
else."  She  had  no  dread  of  the  journey.  To  Monsieur 
Harling,  the  husband  of  her  former  governess,  she  wrote, 
remembering  the  nickname  she  had  been  called  by  as  a 
little  girl,  "An  old  Rauschenblattknecht  like  me  is  not 
easily  frightened."  She  took  a  strong  elixir,  however, 
prepared  after  a  secret  formula  by  a  Dr.  Garus  who 
was  himself  too  feeble  to  walk,  but  who  would  rise  each 
morning  at  three  to  see  that  her  concoction  for  the  day 
was  good  and  fresh.  "He  is  really  the  best  old  man  in 
the  world,"  she  writes  of  Dr.  Garus. 

Madame  reached  her  destination  safely,  but  her  daugh- 
ter, who  had  come  to  Rheims  to  meet  her  with  the  future 
Emperor  of  the  Romans  and  her  other  children,  was  so 
horrified  at  the  change  in  her  appearance  that  she  burst 
into  tears.  "I  felt  sad  at  her  distress,"  Madame  writes; 
for  she  wrote  even  here.  She  played  her  part  in  the 
great  ceremony  and  enjoyed  the  sight  of  the  clergy  and 
nobles  in  their  rich  robes. 

We  have  an  engraving  of  the  ceremony,  though  the 
picture  is  faint  with  age.  Madame  had  the  most  promi- 
nent places  reserved  for  herself,  her  daughter,  and  her 
grandchildren.  They  were  on  the  right,  in  the  front 
row,  quite  near  the  altar.  The  seats  were  covered  with 
blue  satin  with  golden  fleurs-de-lis.     During  the  cere- 


234  A  LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

mony,  just  after  the  splendid  ermine  and  velvet  robes 
had  been  put  on  him,  the  King  approached  Madame 
and  made  her  a  special  bow  in  the  face  of  that  huge 
assembly.  "In  the  whole  wide  world,"  Madame  writes 
from  Rheims,  "nothing  finer  can  be  seen  or  imagined 
than  the  King's  coronation  !" 

But  the  nunc  dimittis  with  which  the  ceremony  ended 
was  her  own.  "They  have  reported  Madame  dead  at 
Soissons,"  writes  Barbier,  "but  that  is  not  true."  But 
very  soon  afterwards  he  writes,  "Madame  has  fallen  ill; 
she  has  dropsy  of  the  chest." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Madame  returned  from  Rheims 
not  much  the  worse  for  her  journey,  but  the  doctors 
saw  fit  to  administer  great  doses  of  what  she  calls 
"green  juice."  "I  am  convinced,"'  she  writes,  "that 
they  have  purged  my  soul  out  of  my  body."  They  had 
purged  the  poor  woman  eighty  times  in  a  single  week ! 

Her  letters  grow  sadder  and  sadder.  It  was  autumn 
as  she  lay  on  her  death-bed,  and  she  had  always  dreaded 
autumn.  "I  love  only  spring  and  summer,"  she  had 
written  in  the  previous  year;  "autumn  I  cannot  endure. 
I  hate  it  worse  than  winter  itself ;  it  is  like  one  continual 
death  struggle."  And  again,  still  later:  "I  don't  think 
much  of  autumn  days;  it  is  only  a  beautiful  agony  in 
which  one  sees  everything  die;  and  there  can  be  noth- 
ing pleasant  in  that." 

Her  last  letter  is  dated  only  five  days  before  her  death. 


Befokk  thk  Cathedral  at  Khkims 


THE   REGENCY  235 

" Thank  God,  I  am  prepared  to  die,"  she  writes,  "and  I 
only  pray  for  strength  to  die  bravely.  It  is  not  bad 
weather,  although  to-day  a  fine  rain  is  setting  in.  But 
I  do  not  think  any  weather  will  help  me.  Many  com- 
plain of  coughs  and  colds,  but  my  malady  lies  deeper. 
Should  I  recover,  you  will  find  me  the  same  friend  as 
ever.  Should  this  be  the  end,  I  die  with  full  faith  in  my 
Redeemer." 

Well  might  Saint-Simon  say  of  Madame,  "She  was 
capable  of  tender  and  inviolable  friendship."  She  had 
not  seen  the  correspondent  to  whom  she  wrote  these 
last  lines  for  fifty-two  years,  but  had  long  written  to  her 
by  every  mail. 

Matthew  Marais  writes  under  date  of  December  4, 
1722:  "Madame,  the  Regent's  mother,  is  very  ill  and 
has  been  so  ever  since  the  consecration.  They  can  do 
nothing  for  her.  Quack  doctors  are  coming  from  every- 
where and  promising  a  great  deal.  But  she  tells  every 
one  they  are  charlatans,  and  that  she  is  going  to  die. 
She  has  much  courage  and  strength  of  mind.  She  saw 
her  Lorraine  family  at  Rheims  and  did  not  trouble  about 
the  journey,  saying  that  one  could  die  perfectly  well 
anywhere.  The  Regent  always  loved  and  respected  her. 
She  asked  her  son:  'Why  do  you  weep?  Must  one  not 
die?'  To  a  lady  of  her  court  who  wished  to  kiss  her 
hand  she  said,  'You  may  kiss  my  lips;  I  am  going  to  a 
land  where  all  are  equal/" 


236  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

Under  the  date  December  8  Marais  writes:  "This 
night,  at  three  in  the  morning,  Madame  died  at  St. 
Cloud.  All  Europe  will  be  in  mourning  —  not  only  court 
but  family  mourning.  She  is  the  great-grandmother  of 
the  King,  or  at  least  the  wife  and  widow  of  his  great- 
grandfather. This  is  through  the  Duchesse  de  Savoie, 
who  was  daughter  of  Monsieur  by  a  first  marriage;  and 
her  daughter  was  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  the  mother 
of  the  King.  She,  Madame,  is  also  his  great-aunt. 
Spain,  Lorraine,  Savoy,  England  (through  Hanover), 
the  Palatine  Elector,  and  all  the  courts  of  Germany  — 
all  are  connected  with  her.  There  will  be  grand  and 
complete  mourning  for  six  whole  months.  She  was  in 
her  seventy-first  year.  The  King  gains  thereby  a  pen- 
sion of  more  than  50,000  crowns,  and  the  appanage  of 
Montargis  which  she  enjoyed  falls  back  to  the  Regent. 
We  lose  a  good  princess,  a  thing  which  is  rare." 

At  the  depositing  of  the  body  in  St.  Denis,  and  again  at 
the  service  held  forty  days  later,  incidents  happened  which 
would  have  made  Madame  herself  laugh  heartily  had  she 
been  alive;  and  we  may  be  sure  that  her  sympathies 
would  not  have  been  with  the  ducal  pretensions.  "  I  once 
had  a  comical  dispute  with  the  poor  Archbishop  of  Rheims," 
she  had  written  in  1710;  "he  was,  as  your  Grace  knows, 
the  first  duke  and  peer.  He  once  said  to  me,  as  we  were 
walking  together  in  the  valley  at  St.  Germain,  '  It  seems 
to  me,  Madame,  that  you  don't  think  much  of  us  French 


THE   REGENCY  237 

dukes,  and  that  you  greatly  prefer  your  German  princes.' 
I  answered  dryly  and  sharply,  'That  is  true.'  'But  if 
you  won't  compare  us  to  them,'  he  said,  'to  what  will  you 
compare  us?'  I  answered,  'Turkish  viziers  and  pachas.' 
'  Why  ? '  he  asked.  '  Like  them,'  I  said, '  you  have  all  the  dig- 
nities, and  no  better  birth.  As  the  Grand  Seigneur  makes 
pachas  and  viziers,  so  the  King  makes  you  what  you  are. 
It  is  only  God  and  their  fathers  and  mothers  who  make  our 
German  princes,  so  you  cannot  compare  with  them.  You 
are  subjects,  and  they  are  free.'  I  thought  the  good  man 
would  jump  out  of  his  skin,  he  was  so  angry.  But  he 
had  no  answer  at  all  ready."  And  again,  earlier,  she  had 
written:  "The  arrogance  of  the  dukes  is  going  too  far; 
they  wish  to  be  above  all  princes.  A  German  prince  of  a 
really  good  house  would  go  wild  if  he  were  to  come  here 
and  have  to  have  disputes  every  day  with  the  vermin." 
And  still  again:  "I  once  gave  one  of  these  dukes  a  good 
lesson.  He  placed  himself  at  the  King's  table  ahead  of  the 
Prince  of  Deux  Ponts.  I  said  out  loud,  'How  does  it  come 
that  the  Due  de  Saint-Simon  gets  so  close  to  the  Prince  of 
Deux  Ponts ;  does  he  want  to  ask  him  to  take  one  of  his 
sons  as  a  page  ? '  Every  one  began  to  laugh  so  that  he  had 
to  go  away." 

After  this,  one  can  better  appreciate  what  Matthew 
Marais  writes  :  "At  the  obsequies  of  Madame  in  St.  Denis 
there  was  a  great  discussion  between  Mademoiselle  de 
Charolais  [daughter  of  a  prince  of  the  blood],  who  was 


238  A   LADY   OF  THE   OLD   REGIME 

doing  the  honors,  and  the  Duchesse  d'Humieres,  who  ac- 
companied her.  The  Duchess  wished  to  walk  at  her  side ; 
the  Princess  took  two  equerries  on  her  right  and  on  her 
left,  and  thus  prevented  the  Duchess  from  approaching. 
When  it  came  to  kneeling,  the  Duchess  put  her  square  in 
the  same  line  as  the  Princess,  who  asked  her  in  a  very 
loud  tone  did  she  wish  to  place  herself  ahead  of  her.  She 
answered  that  she  was  placing  herself  at  her  side,  where  it 
was  her  privilege  to  be.  They  called  Monsieur  de  Dreux, 
master  of  ceremonies  [all  this  while  poor  Madame's  body 
was  about  to  descend  into  the  vault],  who  said  that  that 
was  the  rule.  The  Princess  was  not  at  all  satisfied.  On 
her  return  she  wrote  a  very  emphatic  letter  to  the  Regent 
about  the  prestige  the  royal  house  was  losing  and  about 
the  usurpations  of  the  dukes.  The  Comte  de  Charolais 
said  that  if  any  duke  should  come  to  his  house,  he  would 
throw  him  out  of  the  window.  They  talk  of  nothing  less 
than  taking  away  all  the  honors  from  the  dukes,  the  King 
having  the  power  to  do  so.  The  Due  de  Saint-Simon,  be- 
cause of  this  incident,  did  not  come  to  the  Louvre  to  pay 
his  respects  on  the  death  of  Madame. " 

The  Duchesse  d'Humieres,  at  the  command  of  the  King, 
finally  made  excuses  to  Mademoiselle  de  Charolais,  but  in 
an  assez  legere  manner.  Even  then  Madame  was  not  to  be 
disposed  of  without  more  trouble. 

Marais  heads  his  entries  on  February  5, 1723,  with  "  Ser- 
vice for  Madame  at  St.  Denis.     Dispute  with  the  Bishops." 


I 


Thk  Coronation  Cekkmony 


THE   REGENCY  239 

"The  service  for  Madame,"  he  writes,  "was  performed  in 
St.  Denis.  The  princesses,  who  had  been  at  the  ball  in  the 
night,  did  not  arrive  until  very  late.  Mass  did  not  begin 
until  after  a  quarter  past  twelve ;  a  disturbance  arose  be- 
cause the  officiating  priest  and  the  bishops  maintained 
that  the  grand  master  of  ceremonies  had  absented  him- 
self on  purpose.  The  grand  master  had  not  wished  to  go 
there,  and  he  had  suddenly  disappeared.  The  bishops 
had  only  the  master  of  ceremonies  of  the  abbey,  and  they 
were  so  angry  about  it  that  they  were  not  willing  to  dine 
at  the  table  that  had  been  prepared  for  them,  and  they 
all  returned  to  Paris  to  dine.  The  Bishop  of  Clermont, 
known  as  Pere  Masillon,  gave  the  funeral  oration, .  which 
no  one  heard;  he  had  been  preparing  himself  since  six 
in  the  morning;  he  did  not  get  into  the  pulpit  until  two 
o'clock,  and  he  had  no  voice  left.  His  oration  seemed 
long  and  as  flat  as  the  sword  of  Charlemagne." 

Poor  Madame  did  finally  get  buried,  but  she  was  not 
to  rest  long,  for,  as  is  well  known,  the  tombs  of  the 
Bourbon  royalties  were  sacked  during  the  Revolution, 
and  their  bones  were  taken  out  and  kicked  about. 
Probably  none  of  these  vandals  had  ever  so  much  as  heard 
of  the  kindly  but  sharp  old  lady  who  was  once  the  idol  of 
the  Parisians  and  the  terror  of  presuming  courtiers. 


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